


Wonder World

by Mercowe



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Cuphead (Video Game)
Genre: Angels, Bendy and Boris: Quest for the Ink Machine AU, Demons, Dish People, Fallen Angels, Inky Mystery AU, Micco
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2020-10-17 07:16:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20617115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercowe/pseuds/Mercowe
Summary: Four thousands years ago, the Ink Machine cured ink illness and together the four great races joined forces to bring and sustain a peace that has lasted ever since. As the anniversary celebrating that peace nears, Archangel Alice prepares to accept the role as guardian of one of the ink machine parts. Meanwhile, Lily Harper is bored of playing guardian angel to Micco royalty but is mostly content with life.When someone steals the Ink Machine during the celebration, it starts a chain of events that will change everything for Alice, Lily, and so many more.





	1. A Guardian Angel

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bendy and Boris in The Inky Mystery](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10726146) by [Mercowe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercowe/pseuds/Mercowe), [ThisAnimatedPhantom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisAnimatedPhantom/pseuds/ThisAnimatedPhantom). 
**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! The reboot is here. I'm really excited about this one. :) I have some plans that I really think will work. On that note, I wanted to try something special. Each time Lily sings, I've linked a youtube video on how I imagine her singing it. It's modern songs to a more vintage tone. So if you are hearing the modern tune as you read the lyrics, it'll probably come off weird. 
> 
> This week's song is Creep sung by Haley Reinhart, originally sung by Radiohead.

The room was dark. The soft glow of gold-red light brushed the edge of the curtain in front of her. Lily could hear the buzz of voices just beyond. It was this anticipation she loved. The way she could feel the warmth of the bodies in the room. The faint smell of spicy cigars. The lights. 

The piano music started to play. The curtains parted. The bar had several round tables around the room. Four large balls made up of a network of gold lights that floated just below the ceiling in different spots around the room. A fae fire burned inside a fireplace on the opposite side of the room. 

As the golden light fell on her face, [Lily started to sing.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lF2qEA2cw)

_ When you were here before~ _ The notes danced off her tongue like little crystals as she played the part of the shy bashful girl, lacing her fingers together and looking at the floorboards of the stage. 

_ Couldn’t look you in the eyes~ _ She glanced up just a little and then looked away when she caught the eye of a man in the front. His eyes were riveted to her. She had to fight the urge to smile. 

_ You’re just like an angel~ _She straightened up and finally looked into the audience, letting a gentle smile come onto her face. The man from before gulped as her eyes fell on him again and she tilted her head just a little. It was so easy to make Surface men trip over their shoelaces. It made her want to giggle.

_ Your skin makes me cry~ _She reached her arms out like she was trying to embrace someone, closing her eyes as if she were imagining that skin. As she sang, she became aware of a pair of eyes watching her from somewhere else. 

_ You flow like a feather~ _Her finger drifted across and down airily. It was somewhere at the back of the bar, near the fae fire. Was it Calum? No, the little fae man was tending bar tonight. She smiled to herself. That meant it was Adam. 

_ In a beautiful world~ _She opened her eyes and let her smile widen as her eyes went to the back where Adam stood with a serving tray tucked underneath his arm. He had a frown on his face as he watched her. A cute frown. 

_ I wish I was special~ _ She shrugged as if there wasn’t much she could do about it. She winked at him and his frown deepened. 

_ Yeah, so very special~ _ She waved a hand up in the air as she started the chorus. 

_ But I’m a _ ** _creeeeeeep~_ **

_ I’m a weirdo~ _

Adam continued to glare as she sang. She ignored him for the rest of the song, but she could always feel his eyes on her as he went around the room, delivering drinks, taking orders, making cheeky angel boy comments. By the time she’d finished, he had disappeared from the room, and she knew he would be waiting for her backstage. As she waved and gave her last kisses goodbye to the audience, she took casual steps into the back. 

Betty passed her as she moved into the hallway. “Good job out there, girl!” she said with a wink as she moved down the stairs towards the main room. 

“Thanks, Betty,” Lily said with a wink back. She took her time getting back to the dressing room. She knew what would be waiting there. She even knew the words that would come out of Adam’s mouth. She sighed and brushed her hair back. It wasn’t like she didn’t do her job. Why did he begrudge her a little fun every once in a while?

After going down the hall for a bit, she reached the dressing room door. Adam leaned against the wall next to it, his eyebrows raised as she approached. She gave him her best smile and a wink. “Hello there, handsome,” she said, brushing back a bit of hair that was on his face. “Come to congratulate me on a good gig?” 

“You know what I’m here for,” Adam said in exasperation. “What are you doing here, Lily? You’re supposed to be at the mechanic shop with the kid.” 

Lily waved a lazy hand. “This isn’t something we should be talking about in the hall, honey.” 

Adam nodded and the two of them went inside the dressing room. She locked the door behind her. That might create some juicy rumors if anyone saw them go in. But she didn’t really care what anyone else thought, and Adam deserved it for being a stick in the mud. 

The room was filled with costumes, a long mirror, and an old couch with bits of stuffing coming out of it. Lily flopped down on the couch. “Okay,” she said with a smirk. “Now I’m ready for my lecture.” 

“Lily,” Adam said warningly. “This isn’t a game. What if something were to happen to the child you’re supposed to be watching while you’re here? You’re a guardian angel, Lily!” 

Lily sighed. “Adam, I don’t think you understand what sort of world we live in.” She gave him a deadpan expression. “Nothing ever goes wrong. Stars above, not even the demons cause trouble, and they’re aligned to chaotic destruction.” She snorted. “I mean, remember that fox demon who went beastly a couple years ago? The healers were all over her in five minutes flat, and then she _ apologized _ to everyone on the block the next day. She’s a Lord now.” She waved a hand. “There’s a reason I picked this angel job, sweetie. It’s completely obsolete.” She grinned at him. 

Adam continued to frown at her.

She sighed, throwing up her hands. “Okay, fine! I’m not being an idiot, another guardian is covering for me.”

Adam blinked in confusion. “Really? Why . . . You didn’t flirt him into—”

Now it was Lily glaring at him. “You really have so much faith in me these days, don’t you?” she said with a sniff. “No. It was set up by Isaac.” 

Now Adam just looked skeptical. “Why in the world would Isaac do that?” 

Lily waved a dismissive hand. “There’s that fancy ceremony to celebrate the Ink Machine today.”

“What?!” Adam flopped down beside her, excitement in his eyes. “You’re going to that? When? Are you going to meet all the race representatives? Oh! And you’ll see the machine too!” 

Lily sank lower into the couch as he talked. She would not feel guilty. She wouldn’t. He wasn’t even going, it wasn’t his business. He trailed off as he saw her guilty smile. “Lily. . . ?” 

“Well,” she looked at her perfectly painted nails, “it might have started an hour ago.” 

“Are you telling me you skipped out on seeing the _ Ink Machine _ to sing at the starfallen hole in the wall bar I work at, Lily?” he asked incredulously. 

She scowled at him. “Oh give it a rest, Adam. You know how awkward it is for me whenever I’m in a room with Aba and Isaac. I feel like I’ll get in trouble for relaxing even a little.” She put her hand underneath her chin, pouting. “If it’s not bad enough that he was my classmate and married my sister, who I will point out _ once again _ is TEN years older than him, he’s my boss. I refuse to be a little worker outside of work hours. And now family dinner is work.” She gripped Adam’s lapels and jerked him back and forth. “Family dinner is _ work _. I have no escape,” she said desperately with a twitch to her eyes. 

Adam pulled away from her, putting his hand to his head to keep it from spinning. “But isn’t that sort of sad for your family. I mean, you’ve been avoiding any family things for a while now.” 

She snorted. “With Abaddon pregnant, I doubt that any of them will even notice I’m not there,” she said with a haughty smile and a laugh of triumph. “It is the perfect time for me to slack off to the maximum amount and get away with it.” 

Adam gave her a deadpan expression. “That statement is so wrong. In so many ways.” 

Lily put her arms behind her neck. “Thank you.” The room fell silent for a moment. Lily peeked her eyes open a tiny bit to look at him. With the issue of his lecture aside, maybe they could have some fun? “So . . . ” she said slowly. “Is your shift over soon?” she asked. 

“A couple more hours and then I’ll be done,” he told her, raising his brow. 

“Want to go see a holograph when you’re done? There’s one that pits Felix The Cat against Bugs Bunny and I’m pretty sure it will be epic.” She sat up a little on the couch. 

“Only if you help me feed the animals tomorrow,” he said after considering for a moment. 

She bit her lip, considering. Was having company for a holo worth having to deal with a zoo? Lily thought for a moment. “Yeah, deal.” The little tiger cubs were cute anyways.

They sat in silence together for another breath. Adam reached out and messed up her hair. Lily gave a gasp of fury as she scrambled to fix her perfectly permed curls. Adam laughed. “You know, Lily. Sometimes you make me wonder how it is you became a guardian in the first place. You’re so flighty, I’m sure you would have made a much better messenger. Probably happier too.” 

Lily gave him a haughty glare as she rearranged the curls and made sure they re-curled perfectly. “It sounded like an easy job at the time,” she huffed. “You sit there. You watch the person. You make a frappé cappuccino and drink it. Very classy. Very much within my attention span.”

Adam raised a skeptical brow. “And is that the reality?” 

Lily gave him a mechanical smile. “Yes . . . I told you, Adam. Nothing bad ever happens. This place is a utopia. I haven’t so much as had to protect the kid from a mosquito.”

“Why am I getting a feeling there’s a ‘but’ somewhere in that sentence?” Adam asked with a smirk. 

Lily face-planted on the arm of the couch. “But it’s soooooooooo boring!” She hated Adam. He was so stupid.

The man had the audacity to _ laugh _ at her. He stood up a moment later. “Well, I’m still on the clock, so I’ve got to keep working,” he chortled. “But I’ll see you at your apartment when I’m off the clock.” 

She glared at him. “You’re lucky I don’t go and put food dye in your shampoo while your not home,” she threatened. 

“Uh-huh. You do that. Be sure to make sure it’s a vibrant color so I can really stand out at work. Maybe they’ll give me a promotion.” He winked at her. She stuck out her tongue at him. 

The door shut behind Adam and Lily was left alone in the dressing room. She reached up and scratched at her brow, still huffing to herself. She leaned back into the couch, glancing at the nice black and white dress she’d picked for this song. Something with more color for the next time she performed, she decided. This left her with a couple hours to kill. She was already bored. 

She stood up and started to undress, pulling on a knee-length blue dress with lace along the neckline. The blue contrasted beautifully against her pale skin. She styled her hair just a little so it was up and out of her face. 

She would take a flight, she decided as she worked with her hair. It had been a couple days since she’d given her wings a good stretch. And the city was pretty from above. 

That decided, she picked up her bag and moved out of the dressing room and out of the bar. She caught a glimpse of Adam leaning down to listen to a black-haired woman with a bob cut as she went out the door. She rolled her eyes as she pushed out the front door. Adam wouldn’t be able to tell that someone was flirting with him if they jumped out and kissed him full on the mouth. He loved his little pets and plants too much to bother with figuring out how the game worked. Poor thing. When she had a moment, she’d have to teach him a few things. 

Outside, Lily was immediately greeted with the sight of a moving building. A small round one was shifting to the right, playing shuffle with a spired skyscraper. Lily rolled her eyes. Rush hour. It was the worst. 

Taking a trotting start, Lily let the glamour on her wings fall and leapt into the sky. Rising into the sky, she let a new glamour fall over her. She was a swan in the sky. Graceful wings, small breast, delicate long neck. 

Atlantis wasn’t a bad city to be assigned to as a guardian angel. There was a lot to do here. Each of the rings of the city had an assortment of shops and sources for entertainment. She rose higher to avoid the flying whales raining down water onto the fields in one of the outer rings. Inside another ring, she caught sight of kids playing shark in a large round pool. All the children but one were running across the water while the ‘shark’ lurked beneath the water. Out of nowhere, a micco girl jumped out and grabbed the ankles of a boy and yanked him into the water. The other boys and girls screamed and screeched, scattering to avoid getting caught like their friend. 

At the center of the city was the floating temple where the micco king and his family lived. It was a square building that rose in levels above the round base below it. Above it, above all of it, was the Heart of Atlantis. Lily looked up as she flew. It was the most beautiful part of the city. It sparkled blue and white above them all, enormous and brilliant. Lily could feel a warmth coming from it when she flew high enough. A stray emotion sometimes. But always the hum of its power. Of the souls that powered it. 

As she rose higher, she allowed herself to bask in its warmth. A pair of birds argued as they walked below her down a street. One was a normal toon but, after a gust of cold went through her, she realized the second was a demon. Bondmates. Her lip twitched, and she angled her wings to tilt away in another direction. Ugh. This was her first day off in who knew how many weeks. She didn’t want to feel that goosebump raising chill. It was a drag. 

She didn’t understand toons who were willing to tie their souls to a demon. They were unpredictable, snooty, and acted like know-it-alls. And whenever she got into an argument with one, she would end up looking stupid afterwards. Dumb demon lawyer. Why did her father have to hire a demon anyways? Must be because he was so good at being tricky. He wasn’t worth her thoughts. Besides, in avoiding every family event for the past six months, she’d managed to avoid the _ pleasure _ of making conversation with Prince Anzu as well. A double bonus there. 

High in the sky, time passed quickly. Lily enjoyed the wonder of the city spread out beneath her. The intricate micco runes everywhere. The ridiculously entertaining games she caught children playing below. A group of micco children played basketball, one hoop sticking out parallel to the ground on a wall, and the other doing the same on a wall across from it. Using their runes they bounced from wall to ground to wall and all over the place, trying to get the ball through the hoop. There were a demon kid and a dish girl with them. The demon shifted as he tried to steal the ball away from the girl who had it, slipping in between the other players. She let her rune die, and gravity jerked her out of his reach as she laughed in triumph. She barely managed to activate a rune that cushioned her before she hit the concrete, but she didn’t seem concerned at all. The Dish girl didn’t use runes, but jumped back and forth between the walls to fight gravity. 

It was really cool to see three of the four races together and playing openly. She longed to see a little girl or boy with wings playing among the other children. They were rarer since most angels liked staying in the Upper or one of the flying cities.

Personally, Lily preferred the Surface. There were less expectations. Well...if she glamoured her wings. When she didn't, she got all sorts of ridiculous requests from people. It almost made her want to fall. Then no one would expect anything from her. But that was a bad idea right? Then again, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea. She smiled a slow smile to herself. She could just have permanent singing gigs. Her family wouldn't be happy, but who cared? Her father would let it go after a couple months. The benefit of having a father who was constantly anxious over her sister was that she could practically get away with murder.

She doubted she'd do it though. There was too much to lose. Half her power for one. And then there was...Lily glanced back at her long wings. Well, that just wasn't going to happen. 

Lily landed on the balcony of her apartment. It was okay. She’d made a system. Watch the babies during the day. Go clubbing at night. It was all legal and responsible and that junk. 

That was the annoying part. She wasn’t just watching the kid. Because the kid was always spending time with that girl. So if anything happened—which it wouldn’t— she’d probably have to save both their butts. 

Lily opened the balcony door and slid inside. She wandered into the kitchen, mostly apathetic. She still had fifteen to twenty minutes until Adam got there. She opened a cupboard, looking for something random to munch on. 

A bit of color caught her eye. 

Food coloring. 

A slow smile started on Lily’s face. 

Wonder what pretty bob cut lady would think of bright green hair? 

* * *

Lily and Adam enjoyed the Felix and Bugs holo. The two of them were fighting over the last ticket to a Mickey’s Magic Circus showing. Felix used his tail like a whip to snatch it away but then Bugs ended up blasting him with a canon that came out of nowhere. Felix was reduced to a pile of ash. Bugs had gone for the ticket, but then a gust of wind had blown it away. The zany tactics had continued until finally a random passing kid had found the ticket and walked into the show as the pair watched in distress. In the end they’d worked together to sneak in the back and had watched the show anyways. 

It was very meta and funny, and they laughed a lot. Adam had felt bad for Felix. He claimed that Felix always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Lily had just shrugged. He was a zany and a hologram star. She had no sympathy for him. He had it good. 

When she got home she was in a good mood. She said goodbye to Adam at her door and kicked off her shoes once she was back in her living room. She sighed as she sank into the cushion. Now she could relax. She put her feet up on the couch. 

A moment ticked by. A couple more moments. She could hear the sound of the giant stone micco beasts flying outside her window. Then the room was silent again. Lily listened to the silence. She opened her eyes. How long was it until bedtime anyways? She checked the glowing sundial in the courtyard outside. Still a couple more hours before she could sleep without being a total social shut-in. 

She groaned to herself. Not enough time for her to go clubbing. If she went out, she’d want plenty of time to enjoy herself. Too long for her to do something menial like take a bath. And she was too restless for that anyways. 

She hummed to herself. Maybe she would go and see her charges today anyways. They were always fun to watch. With that in mind, she got up and opened the door to the balcony. Closing it behind her, she projected herself off of the railing and shot into the sky with a single beat of her large, white wings. 

It was easy enough to find the children. They only ever were in two places, at the floating temple where the Sweet Pea lived or at his friend Holly’s garage, working on her inventions. 

This time, Lily decided to check at the garage first. And she was right. She landed in an alley across the street at her usual spot. A cute little cafe that served hot chocolate imported from real hot chocolate springs. 

It was a small road that sat below the street level. It was almost unnoticeable walking past on the street above if you didn’t know it was there. Lily suspected that was why the girl had decided to set up shop here. Or maybe it was just so out of the way that it was affordable for a girl her age. 

She leaned against the alley wall, looking across the street. She spotted her replacement eating a doughnut. He was a cheerful-looking boy with hair that went every which way. Lily gave a little laugh to herself. She wouldn’t be surprised if Holly had picked him out as an angel in the first couple hours. He was obviously a newbie. She paused. But a very cute newbie. Potential for some fun there. She would have to consider how to approach him. 

Turning back to the garage she peered through the open door. She blinked as she caught sight of a pair of flailing legs. Her heart leapt and she almost took a step forward when she realized they were sticking out from the guts of a machine. Booted feet clad in net stockings flailed again as the girl attempted to wriggle her upper body just a little farther past the cogs and pipes of the machine. But she was stuck. Stopped by the waist of her poofy green dress. The sight made Lily snicker. The whole situation was like a strange flower. The dress and lace layers the petals. The girl’s legs the stalks that came out of the center of the flower.

“Hey Sweets, can you get me a wrench?” came a muffled female voice from inside. “I think I figured out the problem!” 

A baby in a red onesie had his arms folded a couple feet away. At the words from the pair of legs, he started to crawl towards several tools that were floating nearby. He grabbed a bar with a little circle of light on the end. “I still think I should have gone in there. I’m smaller,” Sweet Pea huffed as he gently tossed the floating tool in over where Holly was wedged. 

“You’re not strong enough to pull this out, Sweet Pea,” came the reply without even a pause. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re a baby.” 

“It’s not fair,” the baby grumbled. “I can make complex mathematical calculations.” 

“You’re under a foot tall.” The flower wriggled. 

“I can argue fine points on current events,” he shot back. 

“You eat blended bananas for dinner,” snickered the voice from inside the machine. 

“I've spoken face to face with a leviathan born at the dawn of time.” The baby’s cheeks were puffed out now. 

“I’ve seen you making spit bubbles when no one’s looking.” Something popped from inside the machine. 

There was a long silence as Sweet Pea eyed Holly’s legs. “You . . . saw that?”

The legs stopped wriggling. “Yeah Sweets, I saw that.”

There was more silence. The legs started to push against the ground and the upper body started to pull from inside the hole. A black leather jacket showed up and then dark brown hair. For a moment her elbows caught, then she was out and landed on the ground. Holly wore a black choker with a little green crystal hanging from it. Half one side of her head was braided down across the other side and she had black earrings in her ears. She grinned at Sweet Pea. 

“It’s alright Sweets, everyone acts goofy sometimes when they’re bored. And you’ve got the advantage that no one will get mad at you about it for a loooong time. You’re trying too hard to prove to everyone you’re all old and mature. Just enjoy.” She chuckled. “My mom doesn’t let me get away with anything. I can’t wait until I turn eighteen and can _ finally _ move out and have my own life.” She clicked her tongue. "Just four more years." She flopped down on the ground, groaning. “School is such a pain too. I still can’t believe Professor Odd assigned us a group project. It’s so old school and dumb.” She lifted her head to look at the baby. “One person always gets stuck with all the work, you know?” 

Sweet Pea raised a skeptical brow. “I for one, think it’s lucky we have the opportunity to experience things similar to what our ancestors experienced. And at least when we’re doing group projects everyone stops treating me like a baby.”

"That's because they know you'll do all the work!" Holly protested. Then she paused, lifting her head again, and opened her mouth. 

“I know I’m a baby, Holly!” Sweetpea scowled. 

She giggled, lowering her head again. “Just making sure.” She had her hand on her stomach, clutching something. 

He glanced at her hand. “So does that mean we can try again?” he asked her. 

Holly flipped her legs up, her shoes glowing and sending a jolt of color up her as propelled her body to be upright. “Yup!” she said. 

The two of them moved farther back into the garage to a table with a light on it. There was a small black box on it and more glowing tools. Holly set down the object she had been holding. It almost looked like a piece of a cloud. It was wispy and glowed blue. Lily blinked. A soul spot? So she was trying to animate something? But animate what? Lily should have known after weeks of watching them. But most of their talk was so technical that it went completely over her head. 

Holly leaned down to pick up Sweet Pea and set him in a high chair that connected to the desk. She picked up the glowing soul spot again and cupped it in her hands. She and Sweet Pea exchanged an apprehensive look before she let it slide into a hole on top of the black box. Holly screwed on the lid. 

Blue runes glowed all around the box. Holly and Sweet Pea gasped at the same moment and grinned together. “It worked!” they said in sync.


	2. A Celebration of Differences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I realized that last week I forgot to mention. I'm going to be updating every other week (to ensure I can keep up). These will be alternating with the week that Just an Alley Cat updates, so if you're wanting content then, go check out that AU! It's adorable, and it gave me a heart-attack last week! XD
> 
> On another note, this week for me has been really interesting. I've felt like a pumpkin, a banana, and then a potato at altering moments. I blame finals, work, and hormones. I'm now mostly back to normal, so hopefully I'll be a little more stable soon. I just have one more project to finish, and I'll be done with this semester! Wish me luck!

There was something enchanting about a group of people filled with excitement. Alice took a moment to absorb the scene as she stepped into the pavilion. It was a large eight-sided space. Four different tables had been laden with foods of every kind from the four races. Simple multicolored pixie lights danced about in the air just above the tallest demon’s head. And in the center, a few different couples danced together while the rest talked on the sides. 

There were several couples. A short dark-skinned woman clad in a flaming red dress with a train danced with a hulking demon with enormous bat wings, a spiderweb of cracks running all across his mountainous body. Chernabog and Alinta, a demon prince and one of the micco queens. Elder Kettle swayed personably with Alice’s grandmother, Elizabeth. They held each other close, talking like the old friends that they were. 

She also spotted Jake at the back. Alice had to stifle a laugh at his expression. He was dancing with Prince Honnari. The woman’s red-scaled lower body slithered rhythmically back and forth easily enough, but it was also going forward, which forced her poor friend to dance backward constantly. He looked like he was concentrating hard just to keep up, his wings fluttering a bit. Honnari’s intense expression and sharp dark eyes didn’t help either. They were going in a big circle around the pavilion, barely avoiding the other couples on the floor. 

“Now, now, he’s doing his best.” A voice came from her right and she turned to see Isaac with his wife, Abaddon, on his arm. Abaddon was round like a balloon, her dark green dress making her stomach look almost like an avocado. That didn’t stop her from craning her head around though, looking at everything in curious excitement. 

Isaac was in a white suit with feathered tassels on the shoulders. The collar went up his neck just a bit, making him look very handsome. Abaddon had her hair up in a bun at the nape of her neck. It was completely white and a feather or two poked out from it. Her wings were that of an albatross, long, straight, and white with greyed edges. 

"Isaac!" Alice called out and turned to hug him. 

He grinned at her in response and moved to give her a hug. "Wow!" he said, stepping back to take a better look at her. "You look beautiful, Al." He motioned to the gold flowers in her hair. Alice wore a white robe that flowed off her shoulders with gold trimming on the edges. 

"Doesn't she?" Abaddon agreed with a cheshire grin.

She continued to give Alice the grin as she bobbed her brows at the angel. "Ready for the big night?" she asked as she chuckled behind her hand.

Alice ducked her head forward with a smile. "I'm a little nervous," she admitted. "It's a huge responsibility."

Isaac smiled gently at her. “Well, if anyone is the best pick to protect the Brush, it would be you,” he said. “You’ve worked really hard to get to where you are.” 

Alice beamed and she felt her face heat a little with the pleasure of the compliment. The three of them watched the dancing continue. Jake and Honnari seemed to have started a conversation now. And though her friend still looked nervous to be talking with the old demon, there was a new light in his eyes that told her that he had begun to enjoy the conversation. This was only confirmed when Honnari gave a hissing laugh. 

Alice couldn’t help but savor the moment in her mind. The small number of people here was a testament to how important this event was. Only fourteen from each of the races. The most powerful and the most trusted. It only happened every hundred years. 

“I see that the angels are breaking rules already. I count fifteen angels. You’ve got the rest of us outnumbered,” a voice said from next to them. A tongue clicked ruefully. Alice turned to see a demon gesturing at Abaddon’s stomach. He was large, the height of Abaddon on his four feet. He was shaped like a griffin with three eyes, horns on his head, and a snake for a tail. “Never trust an angel. After all, they are all so tricky and use such shady arguments,” Prince Anzu said in mock seriousness as he gave Abaddon and Isaac a wink. 

Abaddon put her hands on her hips, grinning but trying to feign offense. “Oh, is that so, Anzu.” She raised her head proudly. “I seem to count two heads over there. But of course a demon would never try anything tricky,” she teased. “After all, they are as innocent as the day they are born.”

“Naturally,” Anzu said, his snake tail drifting idly back and forth. “We demons are as guileless as those tiny little white things everyone loves. What are they called again?”

“ . . . Rabbits?” Isaac said, raising a slow brow. 

“Precisely,” Anzu said without wasting a beat. 

Alice snorted and burst out laughing. The image of this big, tawny, three-eyed demon as a tiny black bunny rabbit with purple eyes was too much for her. Abaddon’s mouth wavered as she fought her own laughter. Isaac tilted his head at Anzu, smiling as well. “You’re a really strange demon, Anzu,” he commented. His smile widened into a grin. “Ah, and congratulations as well. I heard Jahil chose you.”

The large weather demon puffed up his feathers in pride, a smirk on his beak. “Thank you, honored friend,” he purred. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” he said in a low voice. He glanced at Alice. “And congratulations to you as well, little angel. Your grandmother must trust you greatly to have chosen you as her successor.” The demon’s eyes lingered on Alice for a moment. Alice’s eyes met his. They were piercing purple eyes. Intense. And for a brief moment, all humor was gone. The eyes were searching. It almost was like he was looking into her soul. She felt exposed. And she could sense a chaotic hunger from those eyes. 

And then the moment was over, and the demon looked away. He sat back on his hind legs. “Many of our lives are about to change in a big way today. We should enjoy this moment before it all goes to chaos,” he chuckled.

Alice blinked. Had . . . she just imagined that? “Uh . . . thank you. I will.” She frowned.

Isaac and Abaddon turned to look at Alice, frowning. “Are you alright, Alice?” Isaac asked. 

“Oh yes,” she said, smiling at Isaac. She gave a small laugh. “Just nervous,” she said, letting out a long breath. 

Anzu dipped his head from beside Abaddon. “Oh? I apologize. I didn’t mean to make it sound like the end of the world.” He said in a more sincere tone. “I suppose it’s my nervousness showing as well,” he chuckled. “This is a big responsibility.”

Alice nodded. She considered the demon for a moment. He sat beside Abaddon calmly, his wings folded behind him. 

“I didn’t know you did nervous,” Abaddon teased. 

“Oh, everyone does nervous eventually,” Anzu said with a twinkle in his eyes. “They just need enough on the line.” 

One of his wings shifted as an older angel stepped into the pavilion. He had dark hair and wore a grey suit that matched his wings. Asriel, Isaac's father-in-law and the recorder in the council. Alice felt a pang of disappointment drift off of him as he looked around the crowd. She wondered why. Before she could think about whether to go and greet him, Anzu shifted. “Excuse me. I would like to go greet an old friend,” he said as he moved to join the angel.

The older angel perked up and smiled as the demon approached. Alice watched them go. 

“Oh,” Abaddon blinked. “Where’s Lily?” she murmured as she craned her neck to look past Asriel. A little frown formed on her face. She looked at Isaac. He gave her a shrug of uncertainty. Abaddon reached out and squeezed Alice’s arm. “We’re going to go say hi. Would you like to come with us?” 

Alice glanced at the dance floor. She noticed that Jake was finally free and shook her head. “I’d like to go say hi to Jake,” she said easily. 

“See you in a bit then. I’m excited for you.” Isaac reached out and gave her a quick side hug before he followed his wife. 

Alice moved to the other side of the room. Jake looked a bit pleased, though she noticed the arms of his suit were a little torn. Probably from Honnari’s scales. She waited until he moved over to one of the tables. The Micco one. It had a type of fish dish on it. He hovered over it, trying to decide. 

Alice clapped her hands down on him, smiling. “Hello!” she sang. 

Jake  _ jumped _ . She cackled.

“Hey!  _ Hey! _ That wasn't fair at all,” he complained, turning. “You can’t just jump a man when he’s about to eat something! You’ll ruin his appetite!” 

Alice snorted, chuckling. “You’ll be fine,” she said with a wink. “But you should have realized . . . that something was fishy.” 

Jake brushed off his coat, giving her a disgusted look. “I don’t know if I can talk to you now,” he said haughtily. “That was terrible.” 

Alice grinned and poked his shoulder lightly. “You know you love me.”

“I must be a saint,” Jake said, looking up dramatically. Just as smoothly, he leaned over and took her hand, kissing the back of it. “And I definitely love you,” he said with a cheshire smirk. 

Alice’s face turned into a tomato. 

“J-jake,” she stuttered. “We’re in the middle of a celebration,” she muttered, looking away. 

He continued to grin, still holding her hand. “That’s not stopping your brother,” he said with nothing less than glee in his voice. 

She turned to see Isaac and Abaddon kissing in a corner, Isaac cupping her head. Anzu laughed from his place next to Asriel while the older angel gave his daughter and son-in-law a reserved even expression. 

“Jake,” she repeated, with a little bit of exasperation in her voice. “I’ve told you before . . . I just don’t really—I can’t.” 

Jake gave a long sigh. He smiled at her. “I’m patient,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets. 

She reached out and squeezed his shoulder. It wasn’t fair to him, but she just didn’t understand how she felt. Even after all this time. The fight with Michael hadn’t made it any easier either. . . .

As if summoned by her thoughts, across the room, she caught sight of him. His dark shoulder-length hair was pulled back. And his fiancée was on his arm. Alice’s lips tightened at the sight of her. She was tall, like him, and slim. She had beautiful black hair that ran down her shoulders and back in ringlets. She wore a light green dress that was tight at the shoulders and then spiraled outward in light layers of cloth. Alison.

“If everyone would move to the sides, we’d like to get started now that everyone is here.” Alice’s mother, Hannah, spoke from the front, her voice projecting. The Devil stood beside her. 

He was a beast of a demon who rose at least twice as tall as the demons around him. He was on two feet, and a pair of enormous horns twisted like tree branches on either side of his head, reaching out at least three feet. His fur was shaggy and black. All he wore was a simple dark green cloak that fluttered just past his waist. He had long, spindly arms and thin reaching fingers that hung at his sides like two willow branches. But his eyes were what really made anyone who looked at him stop in their tracks. They were two giant white glowing circles, each like lantern light hovering in the darkness of his features.

King Flagon was next to the Devil, his arms folded over his rounded waist. The micco delegate, Queen Kresuma was just past him. Hannah gave Flagon a look and he raised his arms. In a low voice that was gravely with age, he spoke. “As is custom, we are here to celebrate the four thousandth anniversary of the creation of the Ink Machine and the abolishment of ink illness in our world. This is a sacred and especially relevant celebration this year as it also falls on the exact date that the four races put together the machine originally.” The old dishman tipped his metal head forward. “Each of us is experiencing a great honor in being here.” He seemed to get emotional as he cleared his throat, his eyes glistening. “Queen Kresuma has offered to tell the tale of the Ink Machine this year, after which our six new heroes will show off their talents in combat and we will proceed with the official passing ceremony.” 

The Queen of Atlantis patted the old flagon’s shoulder kindly. She was a slim woman with long white hair going down her back past her waist. Blue runes were tattooed down the left side of her face. She wore a shoulderless blue dress and diamond-shaped pale blue earrings. Red and blue feathers adorned her hair and a glowing blue crystal necklace glowed from above her dark skin.

Her age and fragility were clear. Though she stood up straight and proud, she leaned on a cane. Alice could feel the ancient bone-deep tiredness about her, though she smiled as brightly as her daughter. She had to resist the urge to try and find a chair for the old woman or try and see if she could ease the old aches. The strength and confidence her emotions radiated made it clear that if the old woman had wanted to sit, she would be. 

Lifting her hand, some of the runes on her skin started to glow along with the crystal. She smiled gently at the crowd. “In the days before the Machine, there was a lot of fear,” she began. A type of sorrow entered her eyes and the mist formed silhouettes of toons of all kinds. “The illness came quietly and infected as quickly as a person could speak its name.” The silhouettes melded together and then four groups reformed. “That is, until the most talented of the four races came together with a plan.” The woman laced her fingers together. “The Demons formed the Record. The Angels formed the Brush. The Dishes formed the Cup. And the Micco formed the remaining two, the Doll and Cog.” A smile rose on the woman’s face, and Alice could feel her pride. “Together we wrote the Book that tells the full story today.” 

It made Alice feel pride herself. She glanced at her grandmother, who was standing a few feet away with Elder Kettle. Elizabeth smiled at her. Once again, Alice could feel that boost of pride. It was all around her. The joy of many hearts brought together. 

“The danger of ink illness may have passed our world, but there are those who would abuse the Machine and its powers,” Kresuma said sadly. “Who have tried. And so we pass the responsibility to protect that legacy, to respect it and continue to work together in unity on to the next generation.” Kresuma looked at each of the new guardians slowly. When her eyes fell on Alice, she saw solemnity and searching in them. “Never forget that. A broken bond is hard to fix. Forgiveness, patience, kindness are always the better way.” 

There were murmurs of assent around the room. Kresuma beamed. “Now, if the new guardians would step forward.” Alice took a deep breath. Beside her, she felt Jake squeeze her arm. She smiled at him and moved forward. The seven of them were in a small circle. Alice; Princes Anzu and Stolas; Cannikin and Demitasse; the son and daughter-in-law of Elder Kettle; Jax, the Micco prince of Arcadia; and Sif, the Micco prince of Zerzura. 

“Anzu, Alice are you prepared to start?” Hannah asked, looking at the two of them. Alice looked at Anzu. He smirked at her, raising a brow as if to ask if she was ready.

“Really? An angel versus a demon?” Alice blinked as she heard the Devil’s soft voice. It was the first time she’d heard him speak. He was usually a silent watcher. “That’s a cliché as old as I am,” he chuckled. 

Hannah frowned at him. “What would you suggest then?” she said with a sigh. 

“Your angel versus . . . the micco boy. Jax.” He turned his willowy head to glow his eyes at the boy. Jax had been standing there nervously. He wore a big green hat on top of blond hair. He sort of reminded Alice of a giant flytrap, to be honest. He had a cape made up of spines that looked like the mouth of that sort of plant. It wrapped all the way up to his neck and then hung down to the ground. Underneath it, he wore a light green shirt and dark gloves with dark pants. His shins and half his feet were wrapped in a light green cloth but the ends were bare with no shoes. 

When Jax heard his name called, he jerked and looked around suddenly. Alice could feel his level of nervousness go up as he twiddled his fingers and looked around desperately for some escape. 

But the other three were already nodding, including her mother. The look of horror that followed on his face made Alice feel so bad for him that she almost turned to her mother to ask for a change. 

Before she could, though, Queen Andromeda, his mother, grinned devilishly from behind him and shoved him forward. “Come on, Jax!” she called out in a tone that would have been more appropriate for a brawling ring. “Show us your best. Crush her!” she said, raising a hand emphatically. 

Jax looked back at her miserably. 

Crush . . . Alice? Excuse her? Alice felt the stirrings of competitiveness rise within her. She tried to push them back down but then Jax half-turned back to his mother. “Do I have to,” he whined. 

That made her blink and her lips pressed together in a scowl. Well . . . now she sort of wanted to see what he could do. 

Queen Andromeda’s response was to stick a boot out and shove him closer into the open circle of people. Alice stepped inside as well, looking the boy up and down. “You don’t have to worry,” she said kindly. “This is just a friendly bout, to show our talents,” she assured him. She offered him a hand. “To the best fighter?” 

He narrowed his eyes at her hand suspiciously but slowly reached out and took it. “Uh-huh,” he said. Alice found his grip surprisingly firm. He nodded silently and they let go. Each of them took a step back and walked to opposite ends of the circle. 

“The name of the game here is tag. Any weapon or magic you want to use goes. Each time one of you touches the other, you get a point. Three points and the match is finished. If you  _ hurt _ the other person, they get a point. Fair?” Alice’s mother looked between them. 

“Fair,” both Alice and Jax said at the same time. A coil of nervousness went through Alice’s stomach. She could feel eyes on her all around them. She could feel a specific set of intense, hot eyes. Eyes standing next to a pair of beautiful green eye—Concentrate, Alice!

Hannah nodded. “Alright then.” Alice drew in a sharp breath and settled into a ready stance. Her mother raised her hand. “Then . . . start!”

A burst of magic went through Alice, and she was holding a shimmering sword. She rolled her wrist, the blade coming at Jax from the side. A thrill of adrenaline shot through her. He had his staff up barely in time, rolling it up to catch her blade. But that was exactly what she wanted. At the last second, she reversed the arch of her blade, looping it up and past his block to shoot the blade straight at him. 

Jax yelped, jumping back in time barely at the last second. Still, she flicked her blade, tapping him on the chest a moment before he could get out of range. He stumbled back.

There was a collective chuckle from several people. The feeling of success warmed her. Her brothers grinned. 

“First point to Alice,” her mother announced in an official tone. It felt good to have a sword in her hand again. She didn’t have to concentrate on anything else in this moment. Not the people. Not her nervousness at this new position. It was just her, the sword, and Jax.

“Come on, Jax!” Andromeda called out from the crowd. “That was sloppy.” Jax spared her a withering glare before focusing his attention on Alice again. 

She smiled at him. “That was a good try,” she told him cheerfully, half-lowering her sword. 

He scowled at her as well. “I’m not sure you’re actually nice anymore,” he said in a half-huff. He had moved back a couple more feet and had started to circle her. Alice took his cue and circled as well. 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Alice replied in good spirits. She swung her sword around and felt the resistance of the air against it. The breeze felt good on her hot skin. “Do you want me to go easier on you?”

That got a flat out laugh from a few people, Micco, Demon, Angel, and Dish alike. Jax sighed sourly. “No,” he said flatly. If he had looked done before, now he just looked offended, like he didn’t quite get why she was saying that. 

Alice raised a brow and smirked. “Fine,” she said with a shrug. They resumed circling each other. Jax would get a little closer; and she would tense, runes ready in her head, muscles tensed with her sword raised. But then he would dance back again. He didn’t even try. After a few attempts like this, a little bit of frustration ran through her. He didn’t seem too concerned with making an attack. He was staying too far away for her to make an attack. She needed to get him to move forward again somehow. 

Alice studied Jax. The Micco were unpredictable, tricky. Even if he kept on running away and he’d barely dodged her attack before, the Micco weren’t stupid. They wouldn't pick someone weak. There had to be something more to him than what she knew. 

Alice watched him carefully. He went about on tiptoes, the calloused soles of his feet sticking out from the bandages. He looked as nervous as before, eyes wide and his whole body at attention. He was watching her just like she was watching him. His cape dragged along behind him as they circled each other. 

She ticked off what she knew about him. He looked her age. But since the Micco royalty aged slowly, that meant he had to be at least a couple hundred years old if his body had developed to this stage. So, his overbearing mother aside, he had to have experience. 

He was from Arcadia, the Micco’s jungle city. She eyed him. He looked like a plant himself, so maybe his specialty was plant magic? Could he make plants grow through the concrete? She wasn't sure. She kept an eye on her feet just in case. 

She kept a fire rune at the back of her mind, in case something did happen and she had to free herself. He was skittish now. She wouldn’t get another opportunity to touch him again unless she cornered him, which wasn’t easy since they were in the circle. But she could use her magic. If she just put a barrier when he wasn’t expecting it, she would be able to dart in and catch him. 

Alice’s eyes went back to Jax’s bare feet. Those were open targets. Raising her hand, she started several small explosions next to his feet. 

Jax gasped and jumped back, dancing to avoid the sparks. Alice kept them coming as she herded him towards her. His head swung wildly as it tried to keep track of the explosions and how near he was getting to her at the same time.

Jax’s eyes narrowed, and he seemed to make a decision. He rushed forward. He was fast. Faster than she’d expected. He flew forward, his staff going straight forward. She easily caught it with her sword, arching their weapons over and around to deflect his staff away from her. 

But this time, he didn’t stop or jump back. Strike after strike rained down on Alice. She was forced to retreat backwards. As their weapons slammed down on each other, sparks ignited along her metal blade from his heavy iron staff. So he did know how to fight! His staff spun in a wide circle, and she retreated along the circle of the crowd and finally back into the center. 

She prepared her magic. She’d have to raise the barrier quickly. She got another idea as the magic warmed within her. A thrill ran through her. The finishing blow. She sent a surge of power through her blade, warming it with angel magic. In one fast slash, her sword cut all the way through his staff. Jax retreated but bumped back with a thud against her barrier. His eyes widened as her sword stopped a hair's breadth away from his head, tapping him gently. She breathed deeply, the dance they had just done still making her heart race. 

“Point two for Alice! Point one for Jax!” her mother announced. 

A blossom of shock ran through Alice. Wait. Point one?

She looked down and only now noticed that Jax’s scarf or cape or whatever it was that had been dragging along the ground had crept up to touch her waist. The spines were partially opened, and it seemed there was a  _ mouth _ up at the end. It hissed silently and then curled back around his waist again. 

When she looked back up at Jax, he gave her a cheeky smile. The first real smile she’d seen on his face. “That was a good try,” he said in mock encouragement. 

Alice laughed. But she was still one point ahead. She wasn’t going to let—

A rune lit up somewhere beneath Jax’s layers of clothing. They were back in the thick of it! Alice jumped back instinctively. Or at least, she tried to. When she shifted her boots there was resistance. She looked down and saw green slime sticking to the bottom of her shoes.

Knowing what was coming next, Alice’s sword came up, and she raised her hand to form a rune. But then, her arms wouldn’t move either! The fibers of her clothing had sprung up and had bound her arms to her sides. She yanked at it and the cloth tore. 

“Boop, boop, boop.” Jax’s finger tapped her nose three times. He wagged a finger. “Too slow.” 

What—But that—That had—Alice blinked. It was already over. Alice’s shoulders fell. She felt the bits of her clothes loosen as the spell Jax had performed faded away.

He was right. She had been too slow. 

“Points two and three to Jax. The match goes to Jax!” her mother announced. 


	3. Passing the Torch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! XD Sorry about missing yesterday. There are so many thing going on in my life. It's crazy. But I'm still determined to keep this ball rolling. I hope you enjoy this weeks chapter. :D

“That was a good match.” Jax offered her his gloved hand, his expression back to lazy and slightly nervous. 

Alice sighed. “I got cocky,” she said, smiling back at him. 

“Nah . . . well, not too much. In a real battle it all would have been different,” he said shrugging. “Neither of us was really fighting with our all really,” he said. He sighed, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s a pain we had to fight at all,” he complained. 

She smiled at him.

Shaking herself off, Alice took his hand, which had dropped back to his side at this point. He blinked in surprise at the motion. “I enjoyed the match,” she told him. “We should spar again sometime.” 

He gave her a little frown, using his other hand to reach up and scratch the back of his neck again. He shrugged. “Fighting is a pain . . . but I guess.” He sighed. “I have to do it all the time anyways.” 

“That was a wonderful match,” Alice’s grandmother, Elisabeth, said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders. She smiled at them warmly as the crowd buzzed behind her. 

“Thank you.” She smiled at grandmama. Jax nodded quickly, his movements awkward and birdish. The Devil, Hannah, and Kresuma were talking quietly together. Her mother gave her a look that said she would be expected to visit the training grounds again soon. 

The two of them moved to the side as Queen Kresuma announced the next pair. “Stolas and Sif will spar next,” she said with a bright, excited smile. Her daughter leaned forward curiously as the demon and micco moved into the middle of the circle. 

Stolas was a large owl demon who was about a head taller than the micco prince. Her legs seemed long and made her large, wide, feathered body seem imposing in contrast. Her eyes glittered curiously as she watched her opponent step out into the ring as well.

Sif was a well-muscled man. He had a strong rounded jaw and an air of confidence around him. He had sharp well-lined eyebrows and wore a gold ringlet on his right ear. Two large bronze swords were sheathed, one at his back and one across his waist. He wore a skin-tight, orange-red suit with intricately carved, glowing metal armor plates over top. As he stepped into the ring, he placed a bronze mask with slanted eyes and a grimace over his face. 

The air of confidence and strength immediately made Alice think of Michael. She frowned. Jake moved to be next to her. He grinned at Alice. “So will you be joining me for sparring next week?” he teased.

Alice blinked, pulled away from the start of the match. She smirked back at him. “Is that an invitation? I thought you didn’t like practice.” 

Jake, caught off guard by her easygoing attitude, blinked. “Well, if it’s with you I don’t mind,” he said simply. 

The two of them stared at each other. 

“She didn’t lose because of lack of practice, she lost because of lack of information. Her strategy was incomplete,” Jax said in a low voice from behind them. Alice and Jake blinked, looking back at him. Alice let out a breath of relief, thankful for the interruption. 

“Begin!” Alice’s mother called out. 

Sif’s hair burst into flame and his skin went coal-colored black, his armor glowing the bright red of molten metal. He charged forward, a red-hot sword swinging towards the demon. Alice’s eyes widened in horror. This was a game of tag! He was going to hurt her that way!

“So what’s it like to be an angel?” Jax asked like nothing very interesting was happening. Alice jumped, looking at him. She glanced back to the demon and the micco. Sif stood motionless, staring at the bird-shaped demon blankly. He had stopped midswing. The demon’s feathers floofed up as she seemed to settle in. Her eyes went bigger, giving her an eerie look as she stared back at him. 

What the. . . . 

Alice glanced back again. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” she said in distraction. Stolas was a knowledge demon. . . . Something must be happening in their mindscapes. Jax leaned against one of the columns tensely, eyes wandering around the crowd, his arms crossed around himself like he might jump at the smallest thing. He was slightly hunched over and on the balls of his feet. “What’s it like to be an angel?” he repeated like it was a normal question.

“That’s a funny question.” Jake frowned. “Also, you  _ do _ notice what’s happening over there, don’t you?” 

Jax glanced over and gave Jake a confused look. “Sif is losing?” he said like he wasn’t sure why Jake had asked the question. Alice half-turned, checking to see if anything had changed. The two still stood stock still. A few quiet conversations had started around the room. 

“Um, it’s just being myself,” she said with a smile. “I’m not sure how to answer that.” 

He hummed. “Um, uh, what I mean is . . . demons are all wibbly-wobbly. Like jello. Ah, not jello.” He scratched his head vigorously again. “Like a bit of clay. You just are what you like. Dishes are like tools. They are made to do things.” Alice turned back to Jax. He mimed finger guns and made quiet ‘pu-pu’ sounds. “They are what you put in them. Us micco are . . . like jelly beans.” He twiddled his fingers together. “We’re all the same thing but we come in a lot of different flavors.” He glanced up at her. “But I dunno. I haven’t figured out angels totally yet. I keep changing my mind.” 

Behind them, Chort’s bondmate hovered in the air behind Sif. He looked like a handsome young boy no older than sixteen, though anyone who knew about fae wouldn’t trust that judgment for a moment. He had dark curly hair, pointed ears, bright green eyes, and tiny wings on his shoes. There was a glint of mischief in his eyes as everyone else was distracted. He took out a stick from nowhere and placed a marshmallow on it. With an expression that said he was very pleased with himself, he let the puffed sugar hover over Sif’s burning hair. 

She searched for a name as she watched him flit around the micco prince’s head, a perpetual mischievous smirk on his face. Alice hadn’t had a chance to meet him before. Daren? Damien? No, Daegan! That was it. 

A moment later a tendril of a shadow grabbed the fae’s ankle and yanked him back into the crowd. Chort showed no sign he’d noticed the fairy’s ridiculous actions as he talked to his father, Chernabog. 

“You’re sort of like a melted cookie, all sweet-smelling and looking really nice. But then you can be like a bee. The sting is awful and sudden and if you make one of you mad, the whole hive comes after you. But that’s not quite it either.” Jax sighed and threw up his hands. 

Alice and Jake exchanged an expression. The smile on Jake said  _ Is this guy for real? _ She shrugged back.

The emotions Alice was getting from the micco boy were interesting. He was a mixture of legitimate anxiety but also curiosity and excitement all rolled together in a ball of emotions. And confidence. It was a bit of a contradiction. He seemed to be constantly aware and tense. Alice couldn’t help but wonder if he’d gone through some sort of trauma to be that way. 

She took a moment to think before she responded to his question. What was it like to be an angel? She hummed. “Well, being an angel requires commitment. Responsibility. No matter what type of angel you are. We have great power, so we have to use it wisely and for the good of others.” But he seemed to be asking more about how they used their powers. Was this how he had analyzed their fight? She paused. “What did you think when we were fighting?” 

Jax hummed and paused. “Yes and no. Because you are the same but you’re also like a jelly bean. The same but different. To me you felt like . . . a pencil that was using the wrong end.” Alice blinked. What did  _ that  _ mean? He frowned. “No, that’s not it. A bottle of bleach with its lid on.” A . . . bottle of bleach? Jax twirked his mouth and his frown deepened. “Closer, but not there yet,” he muttered to himself. “A . . . ”

There was a loud, dramatic hiss. Alice smelt something scorching and burning fruit and glanced over to see that Sif had landed in the punch bowl. He blinked in a daze as Stolas hovered behind him, her shadows at the ready. His expression contorted in anger and the red of his armor started to melt, sending a wave of  _ lava _ towards the mind demon, who took flight to escape it. 

Sif blinked out of view for just a second and then was suddenly on her other side. Stolas was surrounded as a wall of heat and molten earth rose up and blocked Alice’s view. 

“And the match goes to Sif!” her mother announced. 

The wall of lava went down and Alice caught sight of Sif’s intense expression as his hand rested on Stolas’ wing. He dropped it and stalked out of the circle. Stolas’ bondmate, a lizard, scurried to her side, helping her up. His scaley nose wrinkled behind his glasses as he looked back at the retreating micco boy’s shoulders. 

“The final match will be Anzu versus the dish pair, Demitasse and Cannikin,” her mother said, glancing at the remaining three. The griffin-like demon and the dish couple stepped into the center. Alice watched them in interest. She’d heard about the couple. They were famous even with the angels. Together they’d managed to take down a leviathan, they had been King Flagon’s personal guards at one point, and they had prevented a massive prison escape attempt at the infamous Black Prison. Because they were such power-houses together, the United Council had made an exception and allowed them to co-guard the part when Cannikin was chosen for the position. 

The boy’s eyes flitted about and then landed on Sif. “You’re like a volcano!” Jax finally exclaimed. 

“She’s a  _ what _ ?” Jake snickered. “Man, the more you talk, the more I like you. You’re weird!” 

Jax gave him a confused look and continued. “I felt like there was so much going on in you but you’re just holding it in. It’s not even oozing.” He hummed, tapping his chin. “Which means you’re going to explode eventually, which doesn’t sound like a good idea. That sounds like a bad idea actually. A really bad idea.” He finished talking to himself and looked straight at Alice. “You could wipe out an island,” he said helpfully. 

Jake burst out laughing. 

Something distracted Jax. They caught sight of Anzu’s liquid form darting between the dish couple. “There,” he pointed excitedly. “Remember, I said tools and clay before? Demi and Can tried to use their tools to catch Anzu, but Anzu was like a squishy bit of clay and squeezed through their fingers,” Jax commented, lacing his fingers and pressing his hands together like he was squishing something.

Jake hummed. “You have a point. Demons are really slippery. I sparred this plant demon once when I was doing my Act of Charity, and half the time I had no idea what to expect from him.” 

Jax’s fingers twiddled some more. “Plants look weak but there is more to them in the details,” he responded shyly. 

Alice waved a hand to get their attention. “Wait, wait a moment. Are you saying I’m dangerous?” 

“No, no, no.” Jax frowned. He paused. “Well, yes. But that’s not the point of what I’m saying. I’m saying you’re holding something in. You—” 

“She’s holding back,” Jake interrupted. “You’re saying when you fought her, you felt like she could have done more.” He turned to Jax. “I don’t think it’s something dramatic as bottling her power though, Jaxy. She’s just too nice. She probably didn’t want to use too much angel magic because she didn’t want to hurt you.” 

“Ah,” Jax nodded slowly as if he understood, then he paused. “Why?” He frowned in confusion. 

Jake raised a brow at her. She ducked her head and frowned at him. She hadn’t held back! Alice paused. Well . . . she had noticed how nervous Jax was...and he looked so fragile . . . and it was just a sparring match. Oh good heavens, she  _ had _ held back!

“And the match goes to Cannikin and Demitasse!” Alice’s mother declared. 

That distracted all three of them as they turned to see Cannikin offer Anzu a hand. Demitasse stood on his other side, hands on hips and a satisfied tint to her smile. Anzu was on his side on the ground. He blinked at the dish man and then chuckled, lifting a claw to allow the dish man to help him up. 

The Devil lifted a long thin hand. “It truly is a glorious day,” he said in a deep resonating voice. “We have witnessed the strength of our guardians. A legacy stretching millennia will soon be yours.” The glowing white eyes turned to watch each of the guardians. Alice felt her back straighten as it fell on her. “A moment of silence as we honor them for the duty they will perform.” 

A hush fell as the demon finished speaking. There were no quiet conversations. No shifting. There didn’t even seem to be wind. Alice could feel the eyes of the crowd on her. On Jax. There was a quiet solemnity she felt from those around her. Respect. Joy. Gratitude. A little sadness. She glanced at the person the emotion drifted from. 

To her surprise, it was her grandmother. The old angel, so beautiful in a white robe that mirrored Alice’s. She smiled at Alice, and although she felt great joy, she also felt sadness. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and their eyes met.

What was she sad about? Was she sad to be letting go of her role as guardian? Mixed with the joy, Alice was left with a mystery. It heightened her anticipation as she thought of the Brush. She’d seen it once. As a child. Now it would be her responsibility to protect it. She felt a little scared but also confident. Everyone here was so ready to do their best, support each other. She would do her best to do the same. The four races had always come together in crisis, so even if something happened, they would come together again and defeat it. 

“Will everyone kindly be seated,” the massive demon continued after a moment of silence. He waved a long, thin hand. Chairs rose from the ground and slowly the crowd rearranged to be seated. Stolas sat down in the front row. Her lizard bondmate, Ryan Oddswell, talked to her with an interested glint in his eyes. Prince Chort, a large hulking demon with bat wings and a goat’s head, sat next to them with Daegan. 

Jax moved away to sit next to his mother and the micco queens as they sat next to the demons. As Sif sat, Alice recognized the woman next to him as the person who had been dancing with Chernabog earlier. The dish warriors moved to the second row. It suddenly occurred to her that she was the only one out of the four races who didn’t have a partner of the same race protecting the parts.

“Sit over here,” Isaac whispered, distracting her and tugging on her arm, smiling. She and Jake left Jax to his mother and moved with Isaac to join her family and Azriel. Anzu sat on the other side of the row. Once everyone had settled down, that left the Devil in the front. Once again, his long, almost branch-like arm swung open. “Will the current guardians rise?” his low echoing voice asked. 

There was a pause and then one by one they did. First was her grandmother, then Elder Kettle. Next was a dreamy looking water demon; her pale, scale-covered skin glinting in the light. The other was a smaller, petite demon who wore a cloak.

Alice took a moment to study her. Drearia. And Jahil. They had been alive when the Machine had first been made.

Drearia’s limbs were long and willowy. Her fins were sharp on her wrists. Her oval face appeared soft, with wide doll-like eyes drooped in a permanent look of sorrow. Her lips were full. Her hair was done up tastefully with little pins of pearls here and there. Her dress was tasteful but rather plain, a fine mist seemed to drift around her like a cloak. 

Jahil’s dark cloak hid most of her, a long scaly tail hovering behind her with a tuft of feathery fur at the end and two dark feathered wings on her back. Her cloak hood was still up, but twisted horns, similar to ram horns, jutted from her head and through holes in the hood. Her face seemed child-like in appearance but had the aura of an adult. Though with the hood in the way, it was hard to tell. Jahil’s eyes were like mirrors or silver, reflecting the room and hypotonic to look at. Her skin was a smooth tan. 

She wondered what it would be like to live as long as they had. What had it been like before the Ink Machine? Before the nations had decided to act in unity? What had it been like seeing the Machine made? She knew that Drearia had painted a portrait of several of the original creators. What had those people been like? 

Finally, Kida, queen Kresuma’s daughter, and Cassius, the Micco king of Hy-Brasil, moved up to the front of the chairs. 

There was silence for a moment as the people took in the scene. Then, the Devil continued. “You, who have served us for so long, thank you.” He paused.”And now, the new guardians.” 

One by one, he spoke each of their names. Jax and Sif, Demitasse and Cannikin, Anzu and Stolas, and then finally, “Alice Angel,” the Devil breathed, his glowing eyes smiling as she rose. It was a long walk down the middle aisle and across the front to stand before her grandmama. Elisabeth’s eyes crinkled as she smiled at Alice, and the angel couldn’t help but smile back. 

A sparkle of excitement went through her. She was ready for this. 

The Devil nodded to the older guardians. “Present the parts.” 

One by one, they appeared. Her grandmother’s magic sparkled and then there was a glowing magical brush in her hands. Its tip glistened with blue as if it had just been dipped in paint. Alice held her breath as she looked down at it. 

This would be her responsibility now. 

She was so entranced with the Brush, that Alice almost missed the appearance of the other parts around her. Jahil presented the Record to Anzu. Drearia presented the Book to Stolas. Princess Kida presented the Cog to Jax. And finally King Cassius presented the Doll to Sif. 

Alice’s eyes couldn’t help but linger on Cassius and the Doll. Cassius and his moving city had been missing for the last five years. And according to what she’d heard from her Grandmama, Cassius hadn’t been the guardian of the Doll when she’d been given the Brush. It had been Prince Bruce and Princess Petra’s father. Something had happened there. But she wasn’t sure what. 

Alice was distracted as the Devil started to speak again. “And now. The Ink Machine.”

A curtain was lowered around the pavilion, bringing the inside into darkness. All eyes turned as the light moved to the center of the stage, away from them. Four quarters pulled back in a circle, and something started to rise from the darkness. Chains clinked as a platform was pulled into the dim candle-light.

Alice was a little shocked as she saw it. It was mostly square in shape. A large, ugly grey pipe angled down from one side, two striped pipes going across the other sides, feeding in the main one. A tray sat at the bottom, underneath the open pipe. It almost reminded her of the pipes she had once seen coming from a factory, polluting water from a river. 

It was an off-grey, the screws and cogs and shapes on it bulky and awkward. She didn’t have the first clue where she should be putting the Brush. 

Then, she noticed six symbols engraved across two sides of the monstrosity. The Parts that made up the Machine.

“As a right of passage, the old guardians will pass the Parts to the new. Who will then place the Parts in their dedicated boxes,” the Devil encouraged them. “As proof that to this day we are still safe from ink illness. And to honor those who made the Machine.” 

Alice blinked, swallowing, and turned back to her grandmama. Elizabeth smiled at her. Gently, she took Alice’s wrist and placed the Brush in her hand. 

It felt large and round in her hand. The wood was light. Unexpectedly light. She lifted the Part to look closer, running her hand down the wood and to the metal clasp that held the bristles in place. She could feel a pulse of magic from it. Powerful magic. 

She turned to look as each guardian stepped forward. Sif was the first. He scowled at the Doll. It now looked like him. When had that happened? Before Alice could question it any more, Sif lifted the Doll next to its symbol on the Machine. The rune glowed and the panel faded away to reveal an empty alcove. Sif placed the Doll in there, shaking his finger and sticking it in his mouth as he walked away. 

One by one, each of the other new guardians did the same. The Cog was large and bulky, making Jax look even more awkward like a deer in the headlights than before. He waddled to the Machine and raised the Part up to the rune, resignation on his face. To Alice’s surprise, when the panel disappeared, the Cog shrunk to about the size of Jax’s palm. The green micco boy blinked and looked at the item curiously. He hesitated and gave it one poke before an impatient noise from his mother spurred him to move forward quickly. 

Finally, it was her turn. As Alice lifted the Brush, she had to resist the urge to wave it around. grandmama had told her how she’d used the Brush before. She was excited. She wanted to see if she really could make something with it. But it wasn’t a toy. That would happen later, during the training period the old guardians went through with the new. 

Alice felt a sparkle of magic cross her fingers and run down her arms as the rune on the Machine lit and the panel faded away to reveal the place where she was to set the Brush. She took a step back after setting it down. 

Last of all, Anzu did the same. His face was set in a frown as he looked down at the Record. He hesitated a moment before setting the Part in the Machine. 

It was done. 

The Machine started to hum. A subtle vibration of magic came from it. A whooshing noise started from the square shape. The gears, belts, and wheels started to move and a dripping noise started from far within its depths. 

Alice held her breath as she watched it work. The Devil and Queen Kresuma moved forward to stand in front of the tray. Carefully, each of them set a small jar down underneath the pipe. 

A moment later, as Alice watched, blackness dripped down from the Machine and into the jars. The two race leaders leaned down to pick up the jars and raised them to show the audience. The air filled with the smell of acid. It was strong and filled the room, making Alice’s nose wrinkle. It made her stomach roll as she smelled it. It wasn’t just the ink smell. There was something else to it that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. A . . . muskiness. 

Before she could figure out what it was, there was a strange whooshing sound from overhead. She looked up. Yellow stars shot across the top of the pavilion and she saw the silhouette of a man. One she didn’t recognize. 

Alice had only a moment to react before the stage went dark and there was a terrible screech of metal. 


	4. A Well Traveled Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! A day late but still posting! I seem to be making this a habit. XD I'm starting to get momentum with this story, so hopefully I'll be able to get more on time in the future. I enjoyed a bunch of things that happened this chapter. I hope you do too!

“Hey, handsome.” Lily slid into the chair next to the angel who had been so unsubtly watching the children. He sat at the table with a single cup in front of him in between his hands. His hands rested flat on the round crystal table as he nervously looked across the street. He was cute. He also could be mistaken as a child stalker by anyone who was paying too much attention. It was a rookie guardian mistake. She gave him a friendly smirk. “How have the little chaos mites been?” 

The angel looked up from the table with his coffee. He blinked. “Uh?” 

She put her elbow on the table and leaned in towards him, smirk still on her face. Still, it wasn’t anything too much to worry about. And she was curious what sort of angel he was. Not a guardian angel. That was for sure. “I’m their guardian,” she said with a wink. “Who are you?” 

The handsome angel chuckled softly, smiling at her. It was a dimpled smile. Messy hair. Cute, untried, very cookie dough. Made her want to eat him right up. 

“Cazziel. I was asked to cover for you. I thought it was going to be for the whole day though.” He looked at her questioningly, his smile never falling. 

Lily hummed. “Yeah, it is.” She left it there and paused. “So, what sort of angel are you?” she asked, reaching out to push a little strand of his curly hair back. She chuckled richly. “You look like a cat waiting for a dog to bite. Nervous?”

“Is it that obvious?” Cazziel asked weakly, his smile a little pained. “I don’t usually do cloak and dagger stuff as a messenger.”

She laughed. Cloak and dagger? She’d never thought of it that way. That made her job seem far more glamorous than it was. She paused and leaned forward, hand tucked under her chin as she looked at the angel. “Oh, so you’re a messenger then. What sorts of packages do you deliver?” She raised a brow and then ran her eyes down him slowly. He had some _ muscles. _“I’ll bet you get a lot of people requesting you.” She winked. 

Cazziel shrugged, glancing across the street at the kids again. “I’ve got a few dozen or so regular customers. Most of them tend to end up in unusual places, like archeologists and adventurer types, so someone with my talent really helps ensure their deliveries actually find their recipients. Even in the densest of jungles or the middle of a desert.”

She tilted her head, curiosity piqued. “Oh? And what’s your talent?” 

“It’s homing. I can find people if I’ve already met them before. It’s why I have so many regulars,” the angel said. “It’s been useful on a number of occasions.”

She smiled then. “So, you’re good at your job because you’re attractive?” she chuckled, a glint in her eyes. 

“What?” Cazziel turned a confused gaze on her.

Lily laced her fingers and placed her chin on them. “Oh nothing,” she dismissed with a smirk. 

He frowned slightly, his cheeks puffing a little in thought and his brow furrowing. 

Oh my. That made him look even more adorable. It made her want to tease him. He was sooo~ her type. 

Cazziel’s face brightened. “It’s less like a magnet and more like having a map with certain people’s locations pinned and updated in real-time. It’s not perfectly exact though. A pin can cover several square miles on a world map after all. It just helps me get close enough that I don’t have to search quite as long.”

Lily pouted. He had completely missed her point. She’d just have to make it clearer. She reached out and touched the underside of his chin so he looked at her. “So . . . ” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “You could find me at any time if you wanted?” She gave him a coy smile. 

He swallowed and blinked at her, his head tilting slightly. “Well, yeah. We’ve met now. I try not to drop in on people unannounced though. Privacy and all. Wil’s the exception.” He chuckled.

She kept her finger there, sensing his growing shyness. The smile lingered. “Oh, but I wouldn’t mind an unannounced visit,” she said, leaning forward.

Cazziel’s eyes went wide and then narrowed in confusion. He gave a sideways glance toward the kids again. 

“Oh, they’re fine honey,” she purred. “Just peachy.” 

“You, uh, can never be too careful, right?” Cazziel chuckled nervously. The confusion in his eyes contrasted with his friendly smile.

Lily slowly removed the finger, pulling it to her lips before reaching out to press it against his lips. “Shhhh,” she hushed him. “You’ll know when they’re in trouble. It’ll be loud. And bright. Those two are little troublemakers after all.” She chuckled. 

He nearly went cross-eyed trying to look down at her finger, leaning back slightly in his attempt to do so. “Y-Yeah. But m-most of their trouble has been p-pretty quiet. They put the cl-cloak in cloak and dagger.”

Lily paused. Oh great. They’d been causing trouble today. The one day that would get both them in trouble they had to go around and make mischief? Starfallen smart dumb kids. She raised a careful brow in his direction and leaned back, her smile more of a pleasant one. “They haven’t caused you any problems . . . have they?” she asked, arms folded. 

Cazziel sighed, his shoulders slumping as he visibly relaxed. “The girl noticed me tailing them when they were heading into a shop. She accused me of being a kidnapper.” He pouted. “My shin still hurts from where she kicked me too.”

Lily snorted but caught herself at the last moment. She did snicker quietly though. Her thought! When she had walked up. She wasn’t the only one who’d thought it. Clever, sharp-tongued Holly. She shook her head internally at the girl, filled with pride and mirth.

“Are all charges as merciless as these two?” Cazziel asked defeatedly. “I’ve delivered packages to wilderness territories less brutal.”

That caught Lily off-guard. The sound she made was not a lady-like sound. It was a loud donkey laugh that she immediately covered up with her hands in embarrassment, tears of mirth in her eyes. Cazziel startled, sitting up straight in his seat and staring at her dumbfounded.

Lily’s face burned hot, and she wiped away the tears at the edges of her eyes, hiccuping. She sniffed and put her hand underneath her chin, smirking again. “These two are a handful,” she said, acting as if nothing had happened. Nothing _ had _happened as far as she was concerned. Curse her stupid laugh. “They’re both too smart for their own good. They think they know better than everyone else older than them.” 

The angel man nodded slowly, watching her as though he were trying to gauge her reaction. “I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of their conversations pretty much all day,” he admitted, not acknowledging her sudden outburst. “And the shops they visited were kinda . . . questionable.”

Lily sighed. Her fingers tapped rhythmically against the cafe table. They were searching for parts for whatever contraption they’d been trying to make today. Those impatient little brats. They hadn’t gone below ground, had they? They were only supposed to go to the Hell district when she was with them. If Holly had brought Sweet Pea down there today of all days she was going to strangle that girl. Or worse! Give her a mullet! Lily tilted her head. “Oh? What sort of shops?” 

“Part shops mostly. They got these glowy things, a spikey cube of some kind, and a bag of who knows what.” Cazziel shook his head. “I don’t even know what that one shop was. It had a big black sign that was pretty illegible. The place gave me the creeps.” 

“Hmmmm.” The dark market, popular shopping spot for vampires, gorgons, werewolves, witches, and an assortment of every type of dark creature out there. Not an illegal place for them to be. But something that would make many nervous unless they were familiar with dark creatures. And frowned upon by Advisor Aspen’s staff. Lily gave the children’s garage a bored look. Really, these kids. If Holly’s parents found out it would be their own fault. 

Though it sounded like they’d only made it to the entrance before he’d found them. This angel was a stubborn guardian. Maybe he deserved more credit than she’d given him. Her eyes flickered back to Cazziel. Mmmmmm. She really liked him. She could already tell that she’d enjoy playing a game of getting him to notice her. He wasn’t an easy player. She leaned forward on her hand. “I’ll make sure that those who should know find out.” Which was no one besides her. She wasn’t going to rat on them. They had a deal. A profitable one. 

And she wouldn’t even be telling Sweet Pea’s parents. Just Aspen’s staff. It’s not like she could even talk to his parents.

Except for today. 

A small pang of guilt hit her, which she immediately pushed away. She was _ not _going to go to the hellish celebration just to pass notes for a kid. And what he didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt him. Lily blew away a strand of her hair and frowned.

Cazziel nodded with a concerned frown before he shook it off and smiled. “So, I’m still covering for you for a few more hours, if there’s anything you wanted to do until then. Unless you intend to take over this late in the day?”

Lily laughed and ran a hand back through her hair. She glanced back to the garage for a second. It didn’t escape her notice that the two of them were at the back talking together in low voices. 

Obviously plotting something.

She smirked and looked back at Cazziel. “Oh no, cutie. They are all yours. This is your shift. I intend to enjoy every single minute of my freedom.” 

Which meant that this was her time to take off or otherwise be guilt-tripped into helping this cookie dough of an angel when chaos fell. She liked him. But not that much. She reached out and ran her hand up Cazziel’s arm. “But the next time you’re free, if you feel like spending some quality time getting to know each other.” She winked, her long fingers lingering at his shoulder before flicking off and drawing back. She reached into her bag and put a little coin on the table. “Call me.” 

Cazziel blinked in surprise and smiled cheerily. “Uh, sure! I’ll do that, Ms. Lily.”

She let her smile linger for a moment longer before turning to walk away down the street. She hummed to herself. Not the usual reactions. He was obviously one of those innocent oblivious ones. If he didn’t call her, she might have to do a little research and make things a little more . . . obvious. She smiled to herself and rummaged through her bag as she turned the corner, pulling out a tube of lipstick. She carefully applied it as she walked, looking up at the lowering sun. 

There were still a few more hours left in the day. Wow. Even killing time here hadn’t used up the last of it. What to do? Hmmmm. Maybe she would go to a club then. To heck with the time. She knew she’d end up staying out really late if she did, but at this point, with this restless boredom, she didn’t care. Hopefully, she’d find someone cute to have a little fun with. 

“So . . . were you ever going to mention that you got an invitation to the celebration of the century or were Sweet Pea and I supposed to just figure that out ourselves?” a voice said from her left. Lily froze, mid lipstick application. Holly scuffed a black boot against the ally cobblestones, arms folded, a dark eyebrow lifted in an imperious expression. “Well, congrats. We did,” the girl said in an accusatory tone.

Lily paused and gathered herself before replying. She moved the lipstick back to her lips, finished applying, and stowed the lipstick away before turning to reply. She put a loose fist on one hip, a cool smile on her face. “Wasn’t any of your beeswax, nerd,” she said with a smirk. “Isn’t.”

“Yeah it is! Sweets’ dad and sister are there!” She scowled at Lily. 

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. “And I should care why?” she told the kid. Yes, yes. Hadn’t seen his family in five years. Was a lonely foster child. Yada, yada. She knew the sob story by heart. 

That made Holly puff up. Her black perm went on end like it was a tiny attack poodle, and Lily had to keep herself from snickering. Holly’s hands curled into fists and her shoulders hunched into her neck like Lily had insulted her family’s honor or something. It was so dramatic, so middle school that Lily almost wanted to cringe. 

Then Holly took a long calming breath. 

Lily frowned. A calm child was a calculating child.

The sixteen-year-old folded her arms and raised a defiant chin at Lily. “Because, oh brave and powerful guardian angel,” she said in an imperiously nasal tone that only a pubescent teenager could accomplish, “according to my thorough intel and calculations, despite your ditching the party, there should still be enough time for you to get to there and deliver a letter before it ends.” 

Lily laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. She was sensing an ultimatum somewhere beyond the neat planning the girl had presented “And why would I do that?” She folded her arms and glared suspiciously at the young girl.

“Because you’re a really nice person and Sweet Pea’s loving guardian angel?” Holly said hopefully.

Lily snorted and shook her head, angling a hip. “Ha! Try again.” 

Holly sighed, reaching into the inside pocket of her black leather jacket. Lily tensed. What was it? “I’d hope I wouldn’t have to do this but . . . ” She flicked a finger, presenting two squares of paper.

Lily narrowed her eyes, a little nervous at what they could be. Holly couldn’t threaten her with telling Isaac that Lily skipped out on watching them at times. It would give away the fact that she and Sweet Pea liked taking trips down to the Hell district. It would be a mutual burn.

Then Lily read what was written in bold on the rectangular pieces of paper. _ The Sasha Swingskirt Laputa Concert. _ Her jaw dropped. “H-How,” she choked, hands half reaching out towards the tickets. Holly jerked them back, smirking. “How did you get those?” Lily finally managed. “They were all sold out _ seconds _after the sales opened!” 

Holly’s smile curled up mischievously. “Better to catch a bee with honey than salt,” she muttered under her breath. “You know my father. Of course I was able to get one with papa’s help. All I had to do was tell him I wanted one,” she said smugly and slipped the tickets back into her coat pocket. She folded her arms. “So?” she tilted her head. “What will it be? Just go to the party for a teeny-tiny amount of time.” She lifted her hand, fingers squished together. “And they are all yours.” 

Lily scowled, narrowing her eyes at the little brat. Her first instinct was to blow the kid off. She hated being manipulated into doing something more than anything else. But other, much stronger, desires were fighting against it. She _ loved _ Sasha Swingskirt’s songs. And she’d been trying to get to a live concert since forever. It was taking a degree of self-control not to simply lean over and snatch the tickets from the kid. But she had limits. She wasn’t so low-class as to take something from a kid. 

Holly moved off the alley wall and put her hands together pleadingly. “Pleaaaaaase Lily? Deliver the letter for Sweets. It won’t take much effort. It would mean so much to us. I mean, you’re such a nice angel. It’s not like you’d really even be doing it for the tickets, right?” she said innocently. 

Lily folded her arms and considered. For half a second. “You’re right. I’m just too soft-hearted,” she sighed. Ha, like either of them believed that for a second. “Fine. Give me the letter.” She offered her outstretched hand. “I’m assuming I only get the tickets after it’s delivered, right?” 

Holly nodded eagerly. She rummaged so quickly with her jacket that she stumbled as she tried to step forward towards Lily, shoes tangling with each other. Instinctively, Lily stepped forward. Her hands reached forward to catch her shoulders and support the kid’s upper body. Holly swallowed, chuckling awkwardly and righting herself as she scratched the back of her head. Lily gave her a dry expression. “Such a clutz, nerd,” she sighed. “Now come on. I literally don’t have the time for your fumble fingers.” 

Holly ducked her head down and blushed. She pulled out the letter but then hesitated as she fingered something in her front pocket. “And . . . uh, also as part of the deal, I need you to give this to Queen Bora . . . Okay?” Her face was craned down as she pulled out a little black box and shoved it in Lily’s direction. 

Lily looked at it skeptically. It seemed deceptively simple. Sleek black on the outside and cube-shaped with a small square indentation in the middle on the top. It was the thing the two kids had been working on for the last year. What sort of chaos and terror was it capable of? And to Queen Bora? What did Holly think she was? The international relations coordinator? “What is it?” she asked suspiciously. 

“Um.” Holly pushed back the side of her hair that wasn’t braided down and pushed it behind her ear. “It’s supposed to help calm demons going through their fledgling periods. It ‘holds’ them and applies micco soul therapy techniques,” she said. “I want Queen Bora to see it. A-And if she could show it to Merlin?” she said in a painfully shy tone. She dared look up at Lily. And Lily could see painful uncertainty in her eyes when she looked at Lily. 

Lily frowned. She looked away. “Fine.” She rubbed the edge of her eyebrow. If this girl gave her wrinkles she was going to make this girl regret living. “Come on.” She gestured with a hand. “Hand it over too.” 

Holly brightened and plunked the cube into Lily’s hand. “But.” Lily leaned forward to stick her nose in the girl’s face. “If this thing explodes,” she raised a finger, “metamorphosizes me or anything else,” she lifted a second finger, “or causes any embarrassing or traumatizing events,” she raised a third. Lily leaned in even closer for emphasis, making Holly lean back with wide, intimidated eyes. “I. Will. _ End _. You.” Lily leaned back, smiling cheerfully. “So, of course I will deliver your ticke-er, trinkets out of the goodness of my heart. But you’d better be ready to face any consequences that fall on me by doing so, Holly May.” The edge of Lily’s eye twitched. 

Holly’s head bounced up and down so fast that Lily imagined she was a bobblehead. 

Lily stuffed the cube in her bag and snatched the letter from Holly. She paused, looking at the girl’s messy hair. Impulsively, she reached out and smoothed back the frizzy bit. Holly stilled, watching her hand. Lily sighed again and pulled out a small spray bottle, giving the girl a spritz before combing it down with her fingers. There, it was fixed. “Now go back to being junior mad scientists.” She waved a hand dismissively but paused as Holly turned to go. “I heard you were harassing the poor substitute about being a kidnapper?” she said as the girl was just about to disappear. 

Holly grinned a cheshire grin. “I mean. He was being so friendly that I couldn’t help it. If he was anyone else, I’d think he was a creep. You don’t just start being all friendly to kids,” she snickered. Then she disappeared around the corner. 

One of Lily’s brows went up proudly. She’d taught this one the art of heckling other people well. And talking to strangers. Turning, Lily took a running start down the road and jumped into the air. 

Well. Apparently she had a party to get to. Good thing she still had her ticket. 

* * *

When Lily arrived at her father’s house she was wearing a silky dark blue dress. She had a delicate string of pearls around her neck and a single handbag pressed against her side. Her wings, two large white swan wings, were hovering around her shoulders as she stepped up onto the porch. 

Her father’s house was a wide, two-story building with a balcony on the second floor out front. There was a flower garden that went from the back and curled around the right side. Lily glanced at the cascading white roses coming off the wall as she reached the front door. With a wave of her hand, it opened and she stepped inside, walking down the hall at an unhurried pace. The place was both painfully familiar and comforting and itchingly unpleasant. Blue walls. Ornate framed pictures lining the hall. 

She paused at her old room and pushed the door open for a moment. It was the same as how she’d left it. A thick bed in the corner that reached the window sill. A brown-red wardrobe, her vanity desk and mirror, and a window with lacy drapes hanging on either side. 

A mixture of emotions went through her as she looked in. She wasn’t sure what they were exactly. But it was the same conflict. Disgust and a longing. Peace and tension. She didn’t like them. And for some reason, she felt like a thief in the night. Or a child with her hand in the cookie jar. She was afraid that someone would show up and catch her looking in. 

Lily shut the door, quickly walking away from the room. 

Just five minutes. Give the right people the right things; avoid Isaac, her sister, father, and the demon successfully; and walk right out the portal again. Back to her nice private little apartment. 

She paused at the door to her father’s study. Lily took a shaky breath as she looked at it. On impulse, she rummaged through her bag. Pulling out her makeup, she perfected her mascara and eyeliner. Added a layer of color to her eyeshadow. Caught the last blemish on her skin. From the reflection of her mirror spell, she inspected herself. 

Flawless. Pale white hair braided down her back and over her shoulder. Large blue eyes that stood out as they matched her dress. The pearls were rosy against her skin. She was gorgeous. 

“Miss Lily?” A head poked out from the dining room. “Is that you?” 

Lily flinched and turned to see the curly brown head of Martha. A frilly white band pressed her hair to her head as she peeked out of a door down the hall. Her robe was the pale blue with the Harper family’s dark crest on a pin in the middle of the blouse underneath her neck. Martha herself looked unremarkable at first glance. Until one noticed the unusually pale tone to her skin. The metallic color of her eyes. And the dainty, almost cute points to her two front teeth. 

The vampire’s pale silver irises glinted in the hallway light. Lily put a hand on her hip and sighed. “Yes, Martha. It’s me,” she said, frowning at the study door again. She smothered the shakiness caused by the adrenaline that had run through her when Martha had called out to her. 

“Oh!” Martha straightened. She didn’t so much walk towards Lily as lean forward to fly bare inches off the ground towards her without moving her feet, maid’s robes billowing behind her in a blue cloud. Martha pressed hands under her chin. “You _ are _ going to the party! Now I told Master Azrael that you would. I’m so glad. He’ll be so delighted,” the maid gushed. She hovered in the air, close to Lily’s face. 

Lily looked at her in annoyance. “Yes, I’m going,” she said. “That doesn’t mean I’m going for him,” she snapped. 

Martha’s face fell, and her feet lowered slowly to the ground. “Oh,” she said dully. “I’m sorry.” Lily frowned and looked away. Martha tilted her head uncertainly and looked back up at Lily. “But don’t you want to make your papa happy?” she asked in confusion. “You’ve always loved making your papa happy.”

Making ‘papa’ happy. Because that’s what it was always about. Making ‘papa’ happy. Wasn’t she the child here? Why did she have to cater to her father’s needs? Lily folded her arms and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a child, Martha. You aren’t my nanny anymore either.” She pulled out some lipstick and carefully started to apply it. “People who cling to their parents after they’ve passed puberty are either emotionally stunted adult-children or lazy.” She capped the tube shut. 

The vampire frowned. She reached up to push back a strand of Lily’s hair. Lily half flinched back but the maid’s cool skin against her hot face felt nice, making her nervously racing heart slow just a little. “Oh, Lily. You know that’s not true,” she murmured comfortingly. “You can’t just give up trying.” 

Lily stiffened and pushed Martha’s hand away. “Give up?” she snorted. “_ I’m _ not the one at fault here, and you know it, Martha.” She made a noise of frustration that turned into a hiccup. She coughed and scowled. Oh pegasus’ pinfeathers, she refused to walk into that party making the same noises as a pig! 

Lily pushed past Martha and shoved open the doors of her father’s study. Martha hovered but didn’t try to follow, a forlorn expression on her face. Lily shut the door on her, scowling. 

Inside, she was alone in the dimly lit room. In front of her were a desk; some bookshelves on the left and right; and a three-paned, semicircle window looking out on the garden. The evening light streaming in from there was the only source.

Lily paused, looking out the window at the garden. She saw the roses. The daffodils. The petunias. The tulips, sunflowers, irises, hyacinths, asters, foxgloves, larkspurs, carnations, and everything else. 

Lily took a few steps forward until she was leaning against the top of her father’s armchair. The gardens used to be her little playground, growing up. She’d work with her mother to help everything grow. Plant new bulbs each year. To suss out all the stubborn weeds. Shape the sections of flowers. Mulch the fruit trees. She would get so dirty. She’d smell sweaty and like dirt herself by the end of it most days. Dirt in her hair, down her shirt, across her pants, and underneath her nails. Her mother would help her scrub them out afterwards. Then she’d scold her for not wearing gloves again. 

Lily would look up here. From down there. Up at this window and see her father working. See Aba up here reading or sewing or writing something in a ledger. Back then, it had never bothered her much that father and Aba had always done their own thing up here alone. . . . 

A pang of grief went through Lily’s heart and she clenched her fists, stubbornly refusing to allow moisture into her eyes. 

Ah. This was so stupid. 

She pushed away from the door and strode out to the left side of the desk. On the ground there was an angel sigil. It glowed an active blue. Meaning it was ready to allow her through. She clicked her tongue and pulled out a single feather from her bag. It was a shimmering golden color. 

Stepping onto the sigil, she lifted the feather out in front of her, casting the angel runes of peace, traveling, and safety. The feather started to glow just as an intense force underneath her made her hair billow and the edges of her dress dance. 

Her world went white. 

When Lily’s vision cleared, she was standing at the end of a cobblestone path. The sun was setting a gorgeous red-orange in the distance. Rose bushes grew on either side of the path, blocking her view, trees looming behind them. The orange sunlight streamed between their trunks. 

Lily paused as an odd feeling overcame her. It took her a moment to pinpoint what was odd about it. It felt . . . so quiet. So peaceful here. The wind blew pleasantly, pushing alongside her, but not powerfully so. Leaves drifted down from the trees lazily. The smell around her was fresh and invigorating, making her mind feel clearer and more awake. And the temperature was so perfect and warm that she felt herself relax. 

She almost just wanted to stand there and enjoy the sensation of the place. Moving about seemed almost . . . a shame. To break the silence. 

Lily did linger there for a moment or two, but then the internal ticking of her clock bid her move forward. She didn’t have much more time before the party ended. She came this far. She’d deliver what she’d promised to deliver. 

She started to walk down the pathway. The rose bushes on either side were thick and occasionally she’d see an opening to other dirt paths. But she knew better than to go down them. She’d been warned. The spells and creatures that had been placed here to protect the Machine were certain death. She’d heard a rumor whispered around Isaac once that there was even a leviathan. Death even for an archangel. And Lily definitely wasn’t an archangel. She didn’t want to die such a stupid death, so she would keep to where she was supposed to be. Away from the maze. 

Which was sort of strange. It made the beauty here deceptive. If she didn’t know better, she would feel the urge to wander down that maze. Curious of what other beauty was hidden. 

As it was, Lily continued to walk in silence. 

Just then, a gust of powerful cold wind came at her from the side, and Lily stumbled. She looked out towards what had previously been the setting sun and saw dark clouds forming on the horizon. 


	5. Everything(one) fall(ow)s A-Part

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry I am late a couple days. At this rate, my posting day is Tuesday instead of Monday! XD But the chase continues.

In a breath-stealing second, Alice knew what was going on.  _ Someone was taking the Machine. _

She didn’t even think, she was in the air a moment later, her wings beating powerfully behind her. She leapt over those in front of her for the Machine, her hands stretched out. 

The darkness filled with a strange chill as her fingers touched smooth, cold metal. Alice heard a scream from behind her. It was an inhuman screeching sound that made her body shake. She froze for a half-second, nerves locked by the sound and the anguish that speared through her like she’d been physically stabbed. 

Then the metal pulled away, out of reach. 

No!

Alice flapped her wings harder and the next second cloth tangled with her wings and arms as she hit the side of the canopy. She heard the sound ripping as the canopy tore, and she crashed to the ground. 

She thrashed in the cloth, adrenaline ripping through her. The Machine! The next second, she summoned her sword and slashed through the cloth. It fell away in pieces, and she caught a glimpse of shimmering blue. An old man ran down one of the cobblestone paths in the distance. He had long grey hair and wore a tall pointed hat covered in stars. He was all in blue. A . . . wizard? The sun was nearly gone in the distance, and the shadows had stretched around her after him like hundreds of ghoulish fingers. 

Alice raised her wings in pursuit just as the shriek behind her turned into a low, long wail. She paused and looked back. Did they need her help? She looked back at the fleeing man. But the thief! As the wail continued, her head went fuzzy with fear and she swayed, putting her hands up to her face. 

Just then, a dark shadow shot out from the open panel in the canopy. Prince Anzu’s wings projected him into the sky like he was a bullet. “No time,” he shouted in passing as he saw her. “They’ll handle it themselves!” 

That dissolved the last of her hesitation, and she took into the air herself. 

The ground disappeared from beneath her feet and shrank as the wind beat against her head and shoulders. The maze spread out below her, like some sort of intricate artwork. Green lines curled every which way, a few gaps showing up in certain areas. The largest of them had a flawless pool of water that the sun glinted off in ripples of red and orange. 

Where had the wizard gone? She hovered in the air for a second, looking, but then she spotted the dark flash of the demon prince’s silhouette. He had taken a dive down. Into the maze. 

Alice snapped her wings to her sides as she followed. The green of the maze sped up towards her, and at the last second, she flapped her wings down, sending a wave of air out around her as she hovered above the pathway. The wizard stopped midstep. Alice was in front and Anzu had landed behind him. 

The wizard raised a large bushy eyebrow with a deep scowl pulling the corners of his down severely. 

Alice pointed her sword at the wizard, eyes narrowed and expression cold. “Who are you and what have you done with the Ink Machine?” she demanded.

“Excellent questions,” the wizard said. “I don’t feel inclined to answer them.” He straightened, his hands disappeared into his sleeves. 

He was going to do something. 

Alice darted forward in an instant. Angel runes appeared in the air in rapid succession and glowing chains sprung from the ground to catch the wizard’s wrists and ankles. A shadow leapt out from behind to wrap around the man’s body, pinning his arms to his sides. 

“Ah. A demon and an archangel. Light and dark magic. Since you are here, neither of you are people to underestimate.” The man said matter-of-factly. “I will be considerate of that.” He didn’t sound concerned that he was captured. 

Alice frowned. He was confident. She couldn’t underestimate this man. And even though she’d hoped for more pursuers, none were within sight. It was just the two of them. 

“That’s a very cocky attitude,” Anzu remarked behind him. The shadows tightened and glittering sparks of electricity danced around the man. Alice took a step forward, arm still raised with the sword. Had he shrunk the Machine? Put it in an ‘other’ space? She’d have to search him to find out. He obviously wasn’t going to tell her. 

The old man raised one of his brows in a severe arch. “Is it arrogance to be sure of one’s self, young demon?” He angled his head to glance at Anzu. “After all, I fear it may be you two that are underestimating me.” 

Anzu moved in to hover around his barrier of electricity as Alice moved inside it towards the wizard. “Oh, are we? Then, by all means, please excuse me,” Anzu said sarcastically. A bolt of electricity jumped up the man. The wizard stiffened and then fell limp. His chin dropped to his chest. A whirlwind of air started around them, making Alice’s hair fly every which way. 

“Anzu!” she said incredulously, glancing back in horror. 

“He’s got something up his sleeve, councilwoman,” Anzu smirked. “I’m not taking any chances with the Machine. 

“That was cruel! He wasn’t fighting back,” she argued. Was this the sort of demon Prince Anzu was? One who struck unprovoked? 

“He was suggesting he would,” Anzu growled in response. “Hurry and check him before he wakes.”

Alice glared at the demon whose shadows had started to rise beyond the circle of electricity. He looked cooly back at her. Her hands clenched together in fists and she bit her lip to fight back the indignation at his actions. Bottling it up, she knelt beside the still imprisoned wizard, patting down his robe to see if she could feel anything, see any runes that might indicate where he’d hidden the Machine. 

As she searched him, Alice didn’t feel anything unusual. She found a little bag of dust; some writing tools, pencils, chalk, a paintbrush; some candies and knickknacks; and then a faded photo. Alice paused as she pulled it out from his pocket. She didn’t mean to linger on it, but it took her slightly by surprise. It was worn at the edges and in black and white. It reminded her of some ancient antiques she’d once seen at a museum. The age of black and white had been so long ago that something like this photo, in pure black and white, was strange and surprising. 

In the photo, the wizard stood in front of some ancient medieval-looking architecture. In the distance, she saw enormous, tall windmills. Beside him stood a petite dish woman with handles on either side of her head. She wore a simple light skirt and smiled brightly out from the image. 

What shocked her though, was the young woman standing to the left of the man. 

It was her. 

Her eyes fluttered as she stared, her heart jumping into her throat in confusion and surprise. Her eyes went from the photo to the prostrate man in front of her. “Who are you?” she said, brows going down. 

She shook her head and reached out. The Machine. It must be on him somewhere. But . . . she paused. She needed to think like a micco. Like Jax had said. Where would a Micco hide something important? 

She thought about their magic. She looked all over him, fingering the cloth of his robe. Then her eyes fell on his hat. 

Carefully, she removed it from his head and looked inside. 

It was empty. A normal, glittering, blue, wizard’s hat. 

She frowned again. 

A micco. 

Like a micco. 

Alice reached her hand into the hat, not looking directly at it. 

She reached and reached and . . . felt emptiness. Her elbow had disappeared by now. Yet she still didn’t feel anything, no matter what direction she reached. It was a large emptiness. Gritting her teeth, she reached farther. To her shoulder. 

Still nothing. 

She removed her hand, her heart still beating as she frowned at it. A fear bloomed within her chest. If they didn’t find where he’d hidden the Machine. . . . Those Parts could be used to conquer nations. This . . . this could be terrible. 

She took a calming breath. Okay. A magical hat. It did seem like the best place to hide the Machine. But she couldn’t find the end to it. A stray thought passed through her head. 

Wouldn’t it be inconvenient to have to search around like that in his hat? Yet he’d stolen the Machine so smoothly and been gone the next second. It didn’t seem like he went to that much effort to use his hat. 

What if it was like a summoning? 

Alice reached into the hat again, this time picturing the Machine. It was a vague image. She’d only seen it for a few minutes after all. 

Nothing happened. 

Alice frowned and tried again, this time picturing something she knew well. Something she’d watched and studied and been excited about her whole life. 

The Brush. 

Smooth wood and feathery bristles appeared in her hand. The shock and excitement that ran through her made her grin. She looked up at Prince Anzu. “I found one of the Parts!” she said as she pulled out the familiar glistening form of the Part. 

Anzu’s eyes widened and narrowed as she pulled it out but he didn’t respond. 

She ran her hand over it, giving a sigh of relief before shrinking it and storing it in her ‘other’ space. 

“I think it works by summoning,” Alice explained. “I need a better image of the Machine.” She stuck out her tongue as she reached in again, trying to think of Cog next. 

A moment later she pulled out a wrench. She blinked and set it down. Putting in her hand again, this time she tried to imagine the Doll. 

Well. She got a doll. But not the right one. It was a small mouse plush with big ears that had on a wizard hat and robe like the wizard. Strange. She set it down beside her as well. 

“Let me try,” came Anzu’s smooth voice. “The more time that passes, the better chance he wakes. I know the Record well.” Alice nodded, rising and moving quickly to hand the hat to the demon. He morphed, reappearing as a dark-skinned man in a suit with long, dark black hair. His eyes were still purple as he looked critically at the hat. 

Alice turned back to the unconscious wizard. She still didn’t like what Anzu had done, but he was right. The man had the Parts. If he used them, he could easily overpower even the two of them. She raised her hands, gold magic glowing to create a barrier around him. She created five anchor points in the bubble of power, lifting him in the air and securing them to each of his limbs and head as she created a spider web of glowing light magic. It was a traitor’s prison. Originally designed when long ago an archangel had betrayed the Upper and somehow managed to avoid falling. It suppressed magic and drained the inhuman strength of an angel. 

“Interesting.” Alice glanced back to see Anzu holding the Record in his hand. It disappeared a moment later at the wave of his hand. He reached in again. Removing his arm, the Cog appeared. Anzu smirked as he made it disappear as well. 

As Alice watched, one after another, the Parts reappeared. First the Doll, then the Book, then the Cup. 

He didn’t look at her as he worked, and each time the Part would disappear with a wave of his hand. He didn’t offer to hand any to her for safekeeping. Alice frowned, a wariness rising within her. She felt . . . uncomfortable again. Like she’d been before. 

“Anzu, you should give some of them to me,” she said quietly, carefully holding out her hand to him. 

The demon prince looked up and paused. He smiled at her. “Oh, of course. Let me get the Machine. Then we’ll divide them. We have to move quickly after all,” he assured. 

Alice frowned, that wariness twisting in her stomach again. 

A branch reached out and wrapped around the demon’s throat. Another grabbed his leg. 

Anzu’s purple eyes enlarged in surprise. Before either of them could move there was a bright rune that appeared before them and a hot flash of light and warmth blinding them. 

Alice half stepped back, covering her eyes. Where was it coming from? Did the wizard have an accomplice? 

There was a shift and a hand rested on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, my dear.” And then there was white-hot pain. 

Alice’s vision went white. The next moment she found herself on the ground, staring up at the sky. She didn’t know how she’d gotten there. Her head was fuzzy and her breathing painful. For a moment she was confused. How had she gotten on the ground? She tried to sit up. Something thudded next to her, and it occurred to her that she couldn’t feel one of her arms and half her face. 

Then a shadow flitted above her. A flash of purple eyes, a trail of stars. “Get up, Alice!” Anzu hissed as tendrils of darkness fended off an army of roots and branches chasing him. 

That’s right. She tried to move, but only flopped an arm again. Her head was so fuzzy. 

_ He was going to get away! _

Alice grit her teeth and forced herself to rise, though her head was spinning. She swayed and half-fell back on the ground. 

In front of her, she saw a shadow lashing out at the old man rapidly. The branch coils were empty. Above them, the skies had turned gray and it was starting to rain. 

An ominous rumble sounded above them. 

The second time she rose, Alice called on her healing magic. In her head, she went into her own skin, past the muscles, deeper. Until finally she found the bright running lights of her nerves. They’d been short-circuited. Some flashing too bright. Painfully. Others dark and unresponsive. 

A tower of golden light shot into the sky, sparks like stars danced away from the bright light. Shadows were pushed back. 

Alice sucked in a breath and went to work, half on her hands and knees. She didn’t have time for a full repair, but she could use a standby. She sent a wash of soothing dulling hormones through her body and instantly the pain was much less. Her head cleared of pain, though it was now fuzzy in a new way. Like she’d been wrapped in cotton. Then, she sent a burst of angel magic through her nerves, strengthening and repairing the system overall to bring most of it back into use. 

Alice rose. Something like shooting stars rained out from the pillar and around the shadows. There was a sound like ringing bells and chimes. 

It took Alice another moment to regain her feet and figure out what was going on. She didn’t recognize the magic. She paused. Wait. She’d put him in the traitor’s prison? How had he gotten out? 

How was he using magic? 

Before she could think more about it there was a great wave of air, a strong gust that smelled of pine and a campfire. It became a gale that caused the bushes to sway and a twist in the clouds. Lightning started to flash and thunder rolled. The old man waved his arm as if he was scooping something and suddenly a great tidal wave appeared and rose up toward Anzu. 

The wizard’s wind and the demon’s clashed together and twisted, making the air howl around them. It sent the trees, bushes, and water every which way. Alice used runes to anchor herself, holding on only with great effort. 

If her magic couldn’t hold the wizard, then what should she do? 

As a tree began to be pulled from its roots, she decided now might not be the best time to think about it and more of a time to act. 

Alice took to the air just barely in time to avoid a tree flying into the air past her. The old man sent wave after wave of water and air against the demon. 

They weren’t even paying her any attention. 

Alice took in a deep breath. 

Well good then. She spread her arms. 

Runes appeared like stars in a grid pattern in the air around them. If she couldn’t stop the wizard from using magic, the only other option was to overpower him. 

It had been a long time since she’d used her power like this. 

The old man lifted his head, noticing her, and lifting a hand, but too late to cast anything.

The two fighters jumped back as light started to stream in between each of the starlets. Alice activated the runes and little cubes of light were created, catching the wizard and the demon prince in separate boxes. The thief looked around curiously. Alice increased the power, drawing from her halo and slowly filling in the walls to make them thicker and thicker. They pushed the wizard in, pressing in at him on all sides. 

He nodded. The man drew his robes close. The stars on his hat glowed and he pulled his robes closer. The blue aura surrounded him and he pulled his robes closer. Closer. No. He was shrinking! 

Alice, determined not to lose him, reformed the barrier of light she had created as he shrunk. Fine. If he wanted to be tiny, she knew where small things best. 

The cubed reformed into a jar around him as he shrank, and she stoppered it with a glowing round plug. The winds around them stopped abruptly. 

The old man looked up at her with a rather bored expression. He pulled his cloak close again and got even smaller. He waved at her and then waved his arm in a clockwise circle, his long loose sleeve following his arm and—he was gone. Vanished. 

Alice’s eyes widened and she glided back down to the ground, the jar lowering with her. Prince Anzu limped towards her from the other side, following. “Where did he go?” Alice asked. “Did he use teleportation?” She frowned. No one should be able to teleport here in the maze. But he’d used magic before when he shouldn’t have been able to. And there was a chance that even his clothes had unique magical properties. She looked at the empty jar again. 

Anzu looked at the jar suspiciously. He had gone back to his large, beast form, though his claw turned into a hard as he reached out to inspect the glowing object. He shook it lightly, leaning his head in to listen. “It feels . . . empty,” he said in a low voice. He reached for the plug. 

Alice frowned as she looked in the jar. As the demon’s fingers went around the stopper, she felt a flash of something. 

Triumph. 

Alice’s eyes widened. “Anzu st—”

There was a woosh of what Alice could only describe as stars, that darted out of the bottle, around Anzu’s arm and over his wings before disappearing into the bushes and toward the lake. 

“Cuss.” Anzu leapt in that direction, Alice only a step behind him. 

As they reached the open ground next to the lake, Anzu gave a scowling smirk. “This fool will regret stepping foot here,” he snarled. 

“ _ If you don’t hurry up, you’re going to lose him _ .” Alice blinked but didn’t break stride as she heard the new voice. It had sounded like it came from Anzu, but it wasn’t his.

She didn’t have time to think about it as she jumped into the air again, her four enormous white wings gave a powerful beat, and she was in the air, arching and slamming down several feet forward. 

Her knees met the thief’s back. With a powerful thud, the man collapsed to the ground, Alice pinning him there. Without pausing a breath, Alice raised a hand and several golden chains appeared, snaking up to imprison the man’s arms, legs, body and neck. The adrenaline continued to surge through her. The man was slippery. They couldn’t lose him again. “Who are you?” Alice demanded, wings splayed and ready, another glowing hand raised. She reached for the hat but found it wouldn’t budge from his head. 

The old man turned his head. He had sharp eyes, bushy grey brows, and a stern scowl. But his eyes twinkled as he watched her struggle with his headwear. “Alice Angel,” he acknowledged in a low, smooth voice, like he wasn’t chained and pinned. “I would be more careful if I were you.” 

She frowned at him. “What do you mean?” 

The man raised his bushy brow and then turned his eyes to the lake. A huge tentacle with razor-sharp hooks lining giant suction cups was raised above them. 

Anzu darted forward, morphing as he moved. His bird head grew the jaws of a great white shark, and he sank his fangs into the side of the monster’s tentacle, stopping it from falling on Alice. 

Unfortunately, that only seemed to agitated the beast, because it thrashed causing great waves to wash over the banks of the lake and yanking Anzu towards its depths. 

Alice’s heart leapt into her throat and she nearly turned from the wizard. But she had learned her lesson the first time. Her eyes didn’t move from him. Prince Anzu was powerful enough to handle it. 

The demon morphed again, this time growing bigger and bigger and forming his own tentacles in imitation. 

The demon’s tail grew large and larger, the snakehead bobbing back and forth and purple eyes practically glowing as it rose above the other tentacles. With a deadly hiss, the enormous snake darted forward, through all the thrashing, moving parts and bit the side of the monster’s neck. A fatal strike. 

Alice drew in a breath of relief. She kept on hand on the man’s shoulders, the other on his hat. The wizard tilted his head. The grass shifted. Vines sprouted underneath and wove around the golden chains. With a sudden explosion, the vines burst forth, ripping the metal and the man away from the angel. Alice had to spring back as thorns shot up, leaves spread, and roses bloomed. The man dusted himself off and ran away, leaving behind a large rose bush as a barrier between him and the angel.

Behind her, the leviathan was fighting to escape the snake’s bite. The jaws of Anzu’s tail locked as he held on. And she could see the poison pumping from its huge fangs. 

As Anzu struggled, his eyes landed on her in her hesitation.

“Go!” he roared as he fought with the giant sea creature.

Indecision broken, Alice nodded and took off, her wings pumping as she projected herself into the sky after the wiley, grey man.


	6. A Black Cube

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's taken so much time to get back on track guys. I've had a lot of stressful things happening lately. Quit my job. Looking for a new one. Finally got the courage back to work on an original work I want to get published. I give myself too many projects. But it helps when I don't want to work on one, I work on another. I do want to continue this. I have a lot of fun ideas for this one. Just gonna take it step by step. Anyways, here it is!

Lily’s eyes were still on the darkening horizon when she heard it. A long, high pitched, screech. It immediately sent a chill up her spine and goosebumps down her arms. It was like several voices meshed together and it echoed in her mind even as her body froze. She turned her head to see a pavilion at the end of the little pathway. 

The top shifted. Then stretched. And  _ shook. _ Finally it tore apart as a black shape emerged from it and bolted away. Lily watched with round eyes. She halted as it disappeared down one of the paths. 

She hesitated on the pathway. What was going on? A slight figure wearing blue old men’s pajamas covered in stars slipped between the curtains and ran down another path. The side of the pavilion bulged and a balled up figure fell out. They tore the cloth apart a moment later. Behind them a familiar form jumped through the empty entryway and leapt into the sky as the angel untangled herself from the pavilion cloth. Lily scowled. Anzu. Ugh. What was he doing? Why was he going after the old man? A moment later, the angel took off into the sky too. 

She frowned down at the items in her pocket and looked back up as she heard yelling voices and a softer screech of sorrow. What the stars above was going on? She was seriously reconsidering if delivering these things was going to be worth the trouble. It looked like hell had broken out in that pavilion! And it wasn’t even her fault! 

She started to turn around to go back to the portal when it occurred to her that Aba and her father were still in there. And Isaac. Lily paused. She really, really,  _ really _ didn’t want to go in there to find out what was going on. Like really. Why did they have to get themselves in a mess! She didn’t want to!

With a groan of annoyance and grumbling under her breath as she went, Lily turned back around and ran towards the pavilion. Just as she was about to reach it, there was a flash, and the whole top of it was cut down, making the curtains on all sides fall to reveal a crowd of people all turned inwards. 

Lily had to jump back as several demons jumped from the pavilion, chasing down the path where the first, shadowy figure had gone. She stumbled, nearly tripping. She blew a stray strand of hair up, glaring as they disappeared down the pathway. Rude. 

Turning back to the crowd, she searched for her father and sister. It was hard to make anything out in the sea of elbows, butts turned in her direction, and shifting figures. 

Finally losing her patience, she grabbed a random projecting elbow and yanked them out of the crowd. It was a young girl with dark black hair. She wore a light white dress that contrasted against her dark complexion enough to make Lily terribly jealous in about half a second. Lily would guess she was one of the Micco royalty because she looked so young. Wearing anything white made Lily fade out completely. “What’s going on?” she asked, though what she wanted to ask was, ‘Will you let me dress you up like a doll?’

The girl gave her a confused look. “The Ink Machine,” she said. “It’s been stolen!” 

Lily sucked in a breath of confusion. The foreboding she had felt before returned ten-fold, and she felt her throat go dry. “What?” 

Before the girl could reply a voice cut through the air. “Does anyone here have a healing talent? Healing magic? We need another healer!” 

Lily glanced at the girl one more time. Oh, this day was just getting better and  _ better _ . Why hadn’t she told Holly to go home and do her homework like a good sixteen year old? Then pushed past the girl into the crowd. The crowd pressed back, so Lily ‘tactfully’ stepped on a few feet, speaking as she went. “Okay, unless you’re volunteering, let me through.”

People yelped or listened, either way, she pushed through the crowd a moment later, hoping that someone else had been able to get there and help before she had, thus releasing her from the moral obligation of having to do anything. 

Oh if life were so easy. 

Blood was pooling on the ground around two wounded figures. An old kettle man and a lizard toon. An owl demon hovered over him, poofed and large eyed with fright. Her tendrils of shadows were keeping his wound held tightly closed, but Lily could tell that the damage was severe. It had gone deep, and she got an uneasy feeling the moment she saw it. 

The dish man was just as bad. He must have been hit with an  _ incredible _ force because his metal exterior had been rippled, leaving dangerous jutting metal on either side of the wound. That wound might be even worse than the first, because the metal would make it harder to suture the wound. 

A dish woman with a glass wide at the mouth and slender at the base was working with him. Frantically she mixed several potions together. She glanced at a dish man and woman standing behind the injured Kettle. “I’ll need you to hold him down,” she said. The man, a mug, nodded and knelt down, taking hold of the older dish. A moment later, the glass dish gulped down the potion. Her hands started to glow red hot...Before Lily could see what happened next, a hand grabbed her elbow and jerked her towards the other patient. “You! You’re a hhhealer, right? Hhhhelp hhhim!” It was a snake of a woman with beautiful black hair. Lily blinked and had to keep herself from examining this one two for potential beauty options before moving towards the bleeding lizard. 

Okay. Go through the mental check-list. She looked up at the owl demon. “What was he cut with?” she said as she prepared her talent. Her halo appeared and started to brighten for the act. 

The owl was breathing shallow breaths, but she managed to answer in a steady tone. “I don’t know. It was dark when he was cut. But I believe it was a demon.” 

Lily blinked as a little shock ran through her. A demon? She looked down at the cut. The demon was keeping as much blood from flowing as could be in the situation, so she could focus on the next steps. First she had to make sure there wasn’t anything left embedded in there. Then she needed to clean it and stitch the wound before she could use her talent. She swallowed, raising a hand. A pair of gloves made from pure angel magic formed around her hands as well as a mask around her mouth. She needed water. And clean cloth. 

Waving her hands, she used more magic to form a bowl. Fearful, she tried a water summoning spell next. To her relief, there was a source near enough by that the bowl filled. Placing her hands on the sides of the magical bowl, she started to heat it up to clean the water. Then, she used her water purification spell to remove any potential parasites. 

Satisfied with the water, she leaned back and formed a cloth of the same pure angel magic. Dipping it in the water, she went to work. “I need you to open portions of the wound while I clean them. After that I’ll stitch him up and use my magic to seal the wound,” she explained to the demon calmly. 

The owl’s body shuddered slightly, but she nodded. The top portion of the lizard’s belly wound opened. Lily leaned over him, wiping and wringing her magical cloth methodically. To Lily’s surprise, she realized that the lizard was still conscious. He was sluggish and weak, peering at her through half-lidded eyes, but he was awake. His scaley hand clutched the edge of his lab coat as he breathed shallowly. 

Lily wasn’t sure whether that was a good sign or not. She didn’t have much time to think about it though, as her world receded to the bloody wound and the cloth in her hands. Wash, wipe, wring. Wash, wipe, wring. Wash wipe, wring. 

There was dirt in the wound. And a strange dark substance. It smelled like something but Lily couldn’t exactly put her finger on what it was. When it looked like she’d been able to clean it up as much as she could, she went to work stitching. Slowly, but steadily, the wound was pulled together, even as the demon kept the rest pressed closed so she could work. 

Finally, she was done. Some of the tension drained from her nerves. This was the part where her magic went to work. He had lost a lot of blood, but not enough that he couldn’t recover. She was cautiously optimistic. All that was left was her talent. 

Lily took a steadying breath and touched the lizard’s belly gently. It suddenly occurred to her that something else was strange about the wound. It wasn’t jagged, the edges...were smooth. Strangely, bizarrely smooth for a cut. Not ripped. Sliced. 

She shook her head and focused on going to work. 

She called on her talent to heal him. 

She didn’t understand what happened next. 

Instead of slowly closing up like she expected, like she had  _ seen  _ happen hundreds of times, the wound  _ widened _ . A smell filled the air like rotting, and her hands became more sticky with the blood. 

The lizard gasped, like he was trying to call out, but couldn’t breathe. He jerked upwards in pain, large fingers splaying to scrabble at the dirt.

“Oddswell? Oddswell. Oddswell!” The owl demon leaned forward. 

“Hey! What the hell!” Demi gasped. “What happened?” 

“What did you do?!” the bird screeched. Lily fell back in surprise, her wings fluttering. The demons clawed hands reached for the lizard. “Oddswell! Wake up! You’re going into shock. You need to stay  _ awake! _ ” 

The lizard gave a quiet groan, and Lily’s teeth were clenched in fear. He was supposed to be healing...Why? “Stolas…” The lizard’s voice sounded very soft. She almost couldn’t hear it. He turned, his large bulbous eyes reminding her of her iguanas for half a moment. They met the owl demon’s. “It’s been a pleasure,” he said, pain leaking through words. “An honor.” He coughed. “Take care, my friend,” he said matter of factly. 

Stolas froze and stared at him. “Wait. Oddswell. No.” The bird scrabbled at the edges of his wound, trying in vain to close the rest. She knocked Cannikin to the side. 

But he was already gone. Lily knew it. He was too limp. And she could almost feel the cold seeping off of him. The air deadened of emotion. The shock seemed to have sharpened her senses, because when someone reached for her arm, she managed to dodge to the side, bloody hands clasped over her elbows. “ _ I-I tried! _ ” she snapped. “I don’t know what happened! Don’t look at me!” 

“Calm down, damnit!” It was a dish woman with long hair. “You’ll pass out pantin’ like that! Ya can’t go into shock.” Her face was grim. “I know you tried, kid. I know.” 

That was when Lily heard a creak. She blinked, glancing past the Dish woman. She was just in time to see the bird start to expand. The demons’ brown feathers rippled and started to turn black. Her body bubbled, and as Lily watched in horror, she started to expand like some nightmarish balloon. Her ears became more pointed, and her wings spread as she grew bigger and bigger and  _ bigger _ .

The dish turned just in time to jump to the side and dodge an enormous wing. Lily wasn’t so lucky. The wing slammed into her stomach. She flew across the pavilion, slamming into one of the pillars.

Her vision spun and went black for a moment. When it came back, little black dots were flying across it.

And then there was a white moon face staring down on her. Stolas’ eyes were two burning black coals, glowing red at the center. Her beak opened...and opened...and  _ opened _ . Her face divided like a wound. Like the lizard’s wound. Then, in an eerie double voice, the bird shrieked. “ _ YOU DID THIS. _ ”

Lily screamed as the mouth dived towards her. In a split second impulse, she formed a shield of magic. 

BAM.

The beak slammed down on it and cracks spread out across the shield. 

_ “Move!”  _ The dish woman came from the side, hitting her shoulder like a boulder and tossing her away. She lifted a glowing finger and fired a lime green shot that was shaped like a star. “Stolas! Control yourself, damnit!” 

The giant bird swung its wings back, sending several dishes, micco, and angels flying. “ _ GET OUT OF MY WAY, DEMITASSE.” _

Lily scrambled to her feet. She felt a pain and gasped as she pressed a hand into her side. Great. Something was broken. She looked down and swayed. Her arm too. It was at an odd angle. She caught a glimpse of bone. 

“You can’t kill the girl, Stolas! Back down!” Demi ordered and snapped her fingers. The lime green glow changed to red. “Don’t make me hurt you!” 

The bird straightened, twice as big as a full grown dragon. It started to laugh darkly. Goosebumps rose all over Lily’s body as she watched the enormous mouth and large white eyes. “ _ You think you can stop me, little Dish?” _

Demitasse let a barrage of red triangular magic bullets fly. Several other dish came at the sides, surrounding the demon in a formation. 

Lily needed to heal herself. She couldn’t run like this. Tongue out at an odd angle, she pressed her arm against the pillar. This was always the worst part. Ugh. 

She yanked on the edge of her wrist, shifting the bone back in place. She muffled a scream and tasted blood. Angel feathers. She’d bitten her tongue. 

Lily put her hand on her arm and called on her power. The odd sharp pain that always came with her healing shot through her. She crouched, fighting a scream again as her arm knit together and the bone inside her fused. 

She should have been paying more attention. Some guardian angel instincts she’d had. 

A claw came down around her waist, yanking her away from the ground and throwing her into the air. 

Lily gasped, arms and legs flailing. She looked down to see a gaping gullet. Luckily, instinct had her wings open just in time. 

A bright blue blast hit the side of the demon’s face. It screeched with an ear-splitting cry. The Owl Demon fought as the snake demon from before trapped her in a binding grip, wrapping her scaley red body around the demon as it thrashed. 

That’s when things started to get weird. Lily’s head started to vibrate. The pillars beneath her started to morph and curl, reaching for her as she tried to gain height. The demon screeched below her again. 

A pillar shot out in the form of a snake, its fangs sinking into her right wing. She gasped and yanked away, barely keeping in the air. 

Below her, the fight with the owl demon continued. 

Stolas had grown two crooked twisting horns. She was getting bigger and bigger, fighting past the snake Lord’s grip. The snake demon cried out as Stolas burst from through, sending the demon flying. The ground rumbled again like it had in the morning.

Lily’s eyes were wide with disbelief. The demon was going beastly. The  _ demon lord  _ was going beastly!

Those fighting below were struggling to keep up. A curly haired boy with wings flitted into the air. Plants grew from the ground, racking at the demon to try to pin down on wing while the snake demon fought to get a grip of another. Giant  _ hands _ rose from several dishes, glowing with the ethereal glow of a soul. Pinning, holding,  _ fighting _ as the demon shrieked at Lily. 

An ominous rumbling started and the earth split, bright red  _ bubbling _ lava revealed beneath it. 

Something hit Lily suddenly. Beastly. Her hand went to her pocket. What had Holly said the cube was for?

Beastly.

Lily gasped as pain hit her back, legs and wings. She looked up to see flames falling from the sky. It had turned deep red. Not the beautiful red of the sunset. Red like the sky was raining blood. 

The others down below grew less as they were forced to focus on dodging the falling and rising earth and saving themselves. The earth itself was breaking into small pieces. And they were getting overwhelmed now. Shuddering skeletons rose from the broken earth in droves, covering anyone and everyone and closing in ever nearer to the site of chaos. 

There was a BOOM and the scene fractured, splitting. The  _ sky  _ split. Half of it retained the skeletons and the falling fire. The lava raining down. 

The other half was normal. Cloudy skies above. Raining. Lightning in the distance. But normal. 

Then it happened. 

Cannikin tripped and a crack caught up to him. He rolled and the next moment, he disappeared into a crevice. 

_ “Cannikin!”  _ Demi shrieked. Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open in horror as she raced to the edge. 

The bird raised its head upwards. And Lily knew in that moment that if she didn’t act then and there she was going to die. 

The neck elongated, zooming up until it was right in front of her. Lily gasped and fluttered backwards barely in time. “ _ YOU AND YOUR POWER DESERVE TO DIE.”  _ the owl screeched so loudly that Lily had to cover her ears as her head spun. She beat her wings higher, trying to escape the monster. She breathed heavily as she reached the bottom of the clouds. 

Lily yanked the cube out of her pocket. How did it work? What did she have to do? Her fingers scrabbled over the smooth black surfaces. There was just that hole at the top. Pain seared through her head as a deafening shriek sounded next to her ears. Her head got dizzy. 

Suddenly her wings were weak.

A sick pain ran through her shoulders and chest. Her body started to shake. 

And then she was falling. The wing tore at her hair, clothes, face. Lily went limp.

The hole. 

In her delirium, something clicked in her brain. 

She turned back towards the ground. She could hardly see anything. Just a black roiling mass beneath her. And then a single blob of nothing rose up from inside it in the shape of a bird. 

As she turned the hole of the cube towards the demon, the last thing she saw was the wicked gleam in Stolas’ eyes before her mouth opened in that horrifying gape to swallow Lily whole. 


End file.
